The sol-gel immobilization of Celite-supported lipase from Pseudomonas fluorencens (Lipase AK) was systematically studied using ternary silane precursor systems consisting of alkyltriethoxysilane (alkyl-TEOS), phenyltriethoxysilane (PhTEOS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). The parameters investigated were the surface coverage at various enzyme-Celite ratios (between 1:1 and 1:10) and the effect of molar ratio of alkylTEOS (alkyl = propyl, hexyl, octyl, 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl, decyl, dodecyl, octadecyl), PhTEOS and TEOS (seven series of alkylTEOS:PhTEOS:TEOS from 0.1:0.9:1 to 0.9:0.1:1 in 0.1 steps) on the catalytic properties of the sol-gel biocatalysts. For comparison, the corresponding binary systems (1:1 molar ratios of alkylTEOS:TEOS and PhTEOS:TEOS) were also studied. The ternary and binary sol-gel lipase preparations were evaluated by their catalytic behavior in enantiomer selective acetylation of racemic 1-phenylethanol and 2-heptanol. For each alkylTEOS precursor, one or more alkylTEOS/PhTEOS/TEOS ternary systems were superior biocatalysts compared to the corresponding alkylTEOS/TEOS preparations. The best overall results were achieved with the medium-chain octylTEOS and perfluorooctylTEOS-containing ternary systems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.