Polypropylene (PP) was hydrophilized by coating followed by UV curing of a blend of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) terminated polyurethane prepolymer and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). This allows formation of a hydrophobic membrane with increased surface hydrophilicity, biocompatibility and stability. Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) was covalently immobilized on this membrane using 5% glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent for post immobilization stabilization of enzyme on membrane. The membrane obtained was placed in a batch membrane reactor where a model esterification of oleic acid with octanol was studied. Under optimum conditions, the biocatalytic membrane gave a specific activity of 796.27 units/mg and 90.26% activity yield. Moreover, there was 85. 10% retention of specific activity. The biocatalytic membrane was observed to retain about 84.23% of its synthetic activity after six cycles. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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