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Ethanol possesses high economic value, but as an industrial waste, it poses harm to human health and the environment. The paper describes the preparation of a thermoplastic polyurethane-poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) (TPU-PNIPAM) copolymer designed to selectively uptake alcohol in aqueous solution. The material was created by bonding TPU and PNIPAM together through intermolecular hydrogen bonds, enhancing its hydrophobic properties and making it easier to interact with alcohol molecules. As the amount of PNIPAM in TPU increases, the number of hydrophobic isopropyl groups in TPU-PNIPAM also increases, leading to an enhanced selective uptake ability of TPU-PNIPAM for alcohols in aqueous solution. When the temperature reaches 55 °C, the hydrophobic groups in TPU-PNIPAM are more exposed, further enhancing the selective uptake ability of TPU-PNIPAM for alcohols in aqueous solution. TPU-PNIPAM demonstrates selective preferential uptake for various concentrations and types of alcohol in aqueous solutions. The material's selective uptake performance for alcohols increases with their hydrophobicity, so TPU-PNIPAM exhibited the best adsorption performance for a 10 wt% n-propanol solution under the combined effect of steric hindrance. In addition, TPU-PNIPAM exhibited selective adsorption for other organic solvents, which demonstrated the universality of TPU-PNIPAM in removing contaminants from aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trametes Villosa Laccase (TVL) was immobilized through physical adsorption on SBA-15 mesoporous silica and the immobilized TVL was used in the oxidative coupling of trans-resveratrol. Higher loading and activity of the immobilized enzyme on SBA-15 were obtained when compared with the free enzyme. The effects of reaction conditions, such as buffer type, pH, temperature and substrate concentration were investigated, and the optimum conditions were screened and resulted in enzyme activity of up to 10.3 μmol/g·h. Furthermore, the oxidative couplings of the derivatives of trans-resveratrol were also catalyzed by immobilized TVL. The immobilized TVL was recyclable and could maintain 78% of its initial activity after reusing it four times.