In this research, the interfacial behavior of Trichoderma reesei CBHI and Thermomonospora fusca E₅ cellulases were studied at synthetic surfaces. For this purpose, colloidal silica and polystyrene particles were used to prepare cellulase-particle suspensions that were analyzed by several solution-phase techniques. These included circular dichroism spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography and filtration, and a spectrophotometric assay for cellulase activity. All techniques were performed in the presence and absence of particles. Circular dichroism spectroscopy (CD) and size exclusion chromatography showed, however, that binding did not occur between either cellulase and silica, presumably because silica is hydrophilic and negatively charged. Binding did occur between each cellulase and polystyrene, most likely mediated through hydrophobic associations. Cellulase-polystyrene complexes were not analyzed using CD because of high light absorption by the polystyrene nanoparticles. Upon adsorption to polystyrene, the activity of the E₅ dropped about 95% relative to that of the free enzyme. While this substantial loss in activity may have been the result of binding being mediated through the catalytic domain, strong evidence supporting the thought that adsorption occurs through hydrophobic associations, mediated through the binding domain, suggests that structural or steric factors were partly responsible for the loss
