Microreactor-Enhanced Enzymatic Breakdown: Janus microspheres with cutinase for nanoplastic removal during water treatment

Abstract

While enzymatic degradation has proven to be an effective way of remediating nanoplastic-related pollution, the practical deployment of this technique is hampered by concerns over enzyme stability, costs, and the low concentration of nanoplastics in natural settings. In this study, we unveil a facile microreactor-enhanced method that improves the effective remediation capacity of cutinase for nanoplastic-polluted water systems. Our approach leverages the self-assembly capabilities of block copolymers within microfluidic droplets to fabricate Janus microspheres with distinct dual-porosity features, which have an enzyme loading capacity of up to 103.8 mg cutinase/g microsphere. The cutinase-anchored microspheres can act as microreactors to capture and degrade nanoplastics. Despite its lower enzymatic activity, the immobilized cutinase exhibits degradation performance comparable to that of its free enzyme counterpart. Moreover, it displays good operational stability over six degradation cycles. Therefore, our findings shed some light on achieving more efficient and cost-effective enzymatic nanoplastic remediation.