3D‐Printed Platforms for Enzyme Immobilisation Screening and Direct Translation into Continuous‐Flow Biocatalysis
The development of immobilised biocatalysts for continuous-flow processes is still largely based on laborious trial-and-error screening, and conditions optimised on conventional carriers are often not directly transferable to structured reactors. Here, we introduce a 3D-printed methodology that integrates high-throughput screening of enzyme immobilisation with implementation in a continuous-flow reactor using the same photopolymeric formulation. The surface of the printed objects was modified through imidazolium-based supported ionic liquid phases. Immobilisation conditions for an enzymatic solution with alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH-200) were rapidly evaluated in a 96-well format using a colorimetric assay that enables quantitative comparison of activity and loading across multiples of conditions in a parallel fashion. Methyl-imidazolium-modified supports showed markedly higher enzymatic activity and immobilisation efficiency than other imidazolium-based ionic liquids, and the best-performing formulation was directly applied to functionalise the 3D-printed honeycomb-structured reactor. The resulting heterogeneous biocatalyst catalysed the oxidation of 1-phenylethanol to acetophenone under continuous flow with high conversion at moderate residence times and sustained performance over several hundred hours on stream. This integrated 3D-printed platform facilitates the identification of effective immobilisation chemistries and their translation to robust flow reactors, providing a general strategy for the rapid development of immobilised biocatalysts.
Authors
- Paulo Roberto de Oliveira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9504-0835)
- Marcileia Zanatta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3080-3627)
- Víctor Sans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7045-5244)
- Cristopher Tinajero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8093-5863)
- Gianluca Palmara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9053-9290)
- Simone Marchetti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5623-1128)
- Luis David Lisintuña
Institutions
- Universitat Jaume I (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ChemSusChem
- Published
- 2026-06-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.70815
- Primary Topic
- Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00