Porous Electrodes with Immobilized Enzymes: The Problem of Development of Nanocomposites with High Concentrations of Molecules of Active Enzymes

Abstract

The currents that are generated in a porous electrode with an immobilized enzyme increase with increasing concentration of molecules of an electrochemically active enzyme. However, a finely divided composite, which is manufactured from colloidal particles of a support that have nanodimensions and molecules of the enzyme with the aid of methods of colloid chemistry, has a peculiar structure: it consists of a set of fractal clusters, which are capable of adsorbing only a limited number of enzyme molecules. The paper is devoted to computer simulation of all the stages of immobilization of the enzyme, specifically, producing random fractal clusters of required dimensions and deploying molecules of the enzyme on them. An analysis of the link of the concentration of molecules of an active enzyme with the structure and characteristics of a porous composite makes it possible to give an interpretation to experimental facts obtained by other authors for an oxygen electrode consisting of finely divided colloidal graphite and laccase.