Protection of Organic Matter from Enzyme Degradation by Mineral Mesopores

Mineral mesopores (2-50 nm diameter) may sequester organic matter (natural and pollutant) and protect it from microbial and fungal enzymatic degradation in soils and sediments. Synthetic mesoporous alumina and silica minerals with uniform pore sizes and shapes were used to test the role of mesopores in protecting organic matter from enzymatic degradation. A model humic compound, L-3-4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), was sorbed to the internal surfaces of mesoporous alumina (8.2 nm diameter pores) and mesoporous silica (3.4 nm diameter pores) as well as to the external surfaces of nonporous alumina and silica analogues. A fungal derived enzyme, laccase, was added to these sorbate-sorbent pairs in aqueous solution and activity was monitored by oxygen consumption. Though enzyme activity was suppressed in both cases by mineral-enzyme interaction (enzyme inhibition likely due to adsorption of the enzyme), both the rate and total extent of enzyme-mediated degradation of mesopore-sorbed L-DOPA was 3-40 times lower than that of the externally-sorbed analogue. These results provide, for the first time, direct evidence for the viability of the proposed mesopore protection mechanism for the sequestration and preservation of sedimentary organic matter and organic contaminants. Mesopore adsorption/desorption phenomena may also help explain the slow degradation of organic contaminants in soil and sediment and may prove useful as delivery vehicles for organic compounds to agricultural, medical or environmental systems.