Preparation and characterization of polyethylene based graft copolymers. Applications in the immobilization of enzymes

In the last few years new copolymeric supports for the immobilization of biological compounds have been developed. The graft copolymer polyethylene-g.co-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, partially hydrolyzed, has shown to be a very promising support for this purpose. The more recent work in the preparation and characterization of this copolymer, as well as the immobilization of a lipase, is reported in this paper. Branches of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) were grafted onto low density polyethylene by using gamma radiation. The influence of the presence and absence of air, as well as the monomer concentration on the yield of grafting were evaluated. The obtained copolymers were characterized by DSC and FTIR. The influence of the support properties on the synthesis biocatalytic activity was detected.