Mechanochemistry-guided reticular assembly for stabilizing enzymes with covalent organic frameworks

Structural stabilization of enzymes by porous frameworks is an emerging strategy in biotechnology that may accelerate large-scale industrial application of biocatalysts. Herein, we stabilize an enzyme by wrapping it with covalent organic frameworks in situ using a mild mechanochemistry-guided assembly. This mechanochemical strat-egy circumvents the harsh conditions often necessary for covalent organic frameworks' crystallization, and hence avoids enzyme dena-turation during the de novo encapsulation. The covalent-linked to-pology and tailorable large pore channels of the covalent organic framework host not only stabilize enzymes, but also outperform the well-explored enzyme-zeolite imidazole framework counter-parts in terms of catalytic efficiency, functional diversity, and struc-tural stability. This work offers a greener and convenient mechano-chemistry-guided assembly strategy, enabling template-free enzyme encapsulation across multiple enzyme and covalent organic framework pore structures.

Automated summary

In this study, we stabilize enzymes by wrapping them with covalent organic frameworks using a mild mechanochemistry-guided assembly. The covalent organic framework not only stabilizes enzymes, but also outperforms enzyme-zeolite imidazole frameworks in terms of catalytic efficiency, functional diversity, and structural stability.