Enzyme Immobilization Using Chitosan-Xanthan Complexes

The immobilization of enzymes is a technique extensively studied since the late 1960s (1 ), and the knowledge accumulated on enzyme immobilization studies has grown steadily since then (2 –6 ). Hydrogels are a particular category of support material that can be used for convenient immobilization. The preparation of hydrogels can be achieved by a variety of methods: reticulation of linear polymers, grafting of synthetic polymers onto naturally occurring macromolecules, chelation of polycations, and complexation between polyanions and polycations (7 –11 ). In this chapter, we describe novel hydrogels prepared from naturally occurring polymers, namely chitosan and xanthan.