Mechanochemistry-guided reticular assembly for stabilizing enzymes with covalent organic frameworks

Abstract

Structural stabilization of enzymes by porous frameworks is an emerging strategy in biotechnology that may accelerate large-scale industrial application of biocatalysts. Herein, we stabilize an enzyme by wrapping it with covalent organic frameworks in situ using a mild mechanochemistry-guided assembly. This mechanochemical strategy circumvents the harsh conditions often necessary for covalent organic frameworks’ crystallization, and hence avoids enzyme denaturation during the de novo encapsulation. The covalent-linked topology and tailorable large pore channels of the covalent organic framework host not only stabilize enzymes, but also outperform the well-explored enzyme-zeolite imidazole framework counterparts in terms of catalytic efficiency, functional diversity, and structural stability. This work offers a greener and convenient mechanochemistry-guided assembly strategy, enabling template-free enzyme encapsulation across multiple enzyme and covalent organic framework pore structures.