ABSTRACT
I. OVERVIEW Surfactant microstructures provide a unique environment for the enzymatic synthesis of polymers. The ability of surfactants to create large oil-water interfaces can be exploited for such biocatalysis, where the enzyme is resident in the aqueous phase and the monomer is resident in the oil phase or at the oil-water interface. The polymerization of substituted phenols using an oxidative enzyme, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), is described in this chapter. Two surfactant microstructures are used in the synthesis: (1) the system of AOT waterin-oil microemulsions and (2) a novel gel system formed by the addition of lecithin and water to AOT water-in-oil microemulsions. The monomers partition to the oil-water interface, and polymerization is extremely feasible. The synthesized polymer also acquires the morphology of interconnected microspheres with controllable internal densities. In the case of the gel system, it is possible to form spherical superclusters of interconnected microspheres. The morphology evolution is perhaps a consequence of monomer prealign-
ment at the oil-water interface. Functional properties of the polymer based on chemical structure and new applications based on morphology are described.
