Encapsulation of carbonic anhydrase in metal-organic frameworks to facilitate CO2 capture

Sammanfattning

Global warming is a growing problem because of increasing temperatures and greenhouse gases. Therefore, to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere this projectexplores the encapsulation of the protein SazCA into the Metal organic frameworkZIF-8. Because SazCA is a protein that can transform CO2 into bicarbonate which inlater stages can form into a solid material to be used for long term storage or otherapplications. The activity of SazCA have been measured with Wilbur-Andersonunits.Previous work on this project have shown some problems with the encapsulationof SazCA, namely low activity at 3 % of the free SazCA and low protein coverage.Results found that the reducing of free zinc did not improve the activity of theSazCA@ZIF-8. However it was found that with increasing amount of BSA mixedwith SazCA in the ZIF-8 synthesis, the BSA protected the SazCA and increasedthe activity to about 32 % of the free SazCA. The activity of SazCA@ZIF-8 did notrecover completely in long term storage after 8 weeks, but is persistently gettingbetter than that of free SazCA in the same condition. In activity measurements in50, 60 and 70 ◦C the SazCA@ZIF-8 did not show better activity at higher temperatures but further experiments will have to be performed. It was noted that in theZIF-8 synthesis the protein coverage reduced with about 50 % and was traced tothe 2-MIM being responsible. It was concluded that the 2-MIM did not degrade theprotein and it was concluded that the 2-MIM affect the protein measurement in theBradford protein measurement.