Abstract | Polymethyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid P(MMA-co-MAA) microparticles have attracted great attention as the carrier of choice for enzyme immobilisation due to their low production cost. Here we report on a simple P(MMA-co-MAA) microparticles (MPs) preparation using a solvent evaporation method, which is intended to be used for enzyme immobilisation. The microparticles were prepared using two different feed ratios of MMA to MAA (80:20, PMMA80 and 98:2, PMMA98) and surfactant types, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), to observe their effect on the properties of the microparticles. Overall, the produced microparticles have an average diameter (Davg) between 1 to 4 µm as measured using particle size analyser (PSA), with PMMA98 microparticles having larger Davg than PMMA80. Optical and electron microscope characterisation of the produced MPs revealed that both PMMA98 and PMMA80 MPs were morphologically different in which the first and latter having spherical and collapsed structure respectively. Furthermore, we immobilised a model enzyme, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) onto the MPs covalently and measured their stability for seven days. All immobilised HRP showed lower but stable activity in relative to the free HRP, with the highest relative activity (67%) recorded on PMMA98/PVP microparticles, suggesting this MP as the most suitable carrier for enzyme immobilisation among the produced MPs. |