Bromelain immobilization in cellulose triacetate nanofiber membranes from sugarcane bagasse by electrospinning technique

Abstract Cellulose triacetate (CTAB) synthesized by cellulose extracted from sugarcane bagasse, and commercial cellulose acetate (CA) were used to produce nanofiber membranes contained bromelain by electrospinning technique. About 1.3 g of cellulose acetate per gram of bagasse were obtained, and both CTAB and CA was characterized by analysis of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The nanofiber membranes were produced by electrospinning process testing the following conditions: voltage 25 kV, flow rate 4 mL/h and distance 10 cm, using acetone/ dimethylformamide (DMF) (85:15 m/ m) to 15% cellulose triacetate (70% CA + 30% CTAB) or CA solutions. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to nanofiber membranes characterization. Bromelain was immobilized on the nanofiber membranes by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde and directly in the electrospinning step, the highest activity recovery was about 675% and in vitro controlled release tests were performed to semi-quantitatively evaluate the release of the enzyme bromelain thus demonstrating complete release process in 3 days.