Effects of ink characteristics and piezo-electric inkjetting parameters on lysozyme activity

Inkjet printing of enzymes can facilitate many novel applications where a small amount of materials need to be deposited in a precise and flexible manner. However, maintaining the satisfactory activity of inkjet printed enzyme is a challenging task due to the requirements of ink rheology and printhead parameters. Thus to find optimum inkjetting conditions we studied the effects of several ink formulation and jetting parameters on lysozyme activity using a piezoelectric printhead. Within linear activity range of protein concentrations ink containing 50 µg/mL lysozyme showed a satisfactory activity retention of 85%. An acceptable activity of jetted ink was found at pH 6.2 and ionic strength of 0.06 molar. Glycerol was found to be an effective viscosity modifier (10–15 mPa.s), humectant and protein structure stabilizer for the prepared ink. A non-ionic surfactant when used just below critical micelle concentration was found to be favourable for the jetted inks. An increase in activity retention was observed for inks jetted after 24 hours of room temperature incubation. However, no additional activity was seen for inkjetting above the room temperature. Findings of this study would be useful for formulating other protein-based inks and setting their inkjet printing parameters without highly compromising the functionality.