Self-organization of glucose oxidase-polymer surfactant nanoconstructs in solvent-free soft solids and liquids

An anisotropic glucose oxidase-polymer surfactant nanoconjugate is synthesized and shown to exhibit complex temperature-dependent phase behavior in the solvent-free state. At close to room temperature, the nanoconjugate crystallizes as a mesolamellar soft solid with an expanded interlayer spacing of ca. 12 nm and interchain correlation lengths consistent with alkyl tail-tail and PEO-PEO ordering. The soft solid displays a birefringent spherulitic texture and melts at 40 °C to produce a solvent-free liquid protein without loss of enzyme secondary structure. The nanoconjugate melt exhibits a birefringent dendritic texture below the conformation transition temperature (T_c) of glucose oxidase (58 °C) and retains interchain PEO-PEO ordering. Our results indicate that the shape anisotropy of the protein-polymer surfactant globular building block plays a key role in directing mesolamellar formation in the solvent-free solid and suggests that the microstructure observed in the solvent-free liquid protein below T_c is associated with restrictions in the intramolecular motions of the protein core of the nanoconjugate.