Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-nanofibers-immobilized lipase were formed by electrospinning. The specific surface area of the nanofiber (5.96 m(2)/g) was about 250 times larger than that of PVA-film-immobilized lipase (0.024 m(2)/g). The PVA-nanofibers-i in mobilized lipase were used as the catalyst for the esterification of (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol (leaf alcohol) with acetic acid in hexane. The activity of the nanofiber is equivalent to that of commercially available immobilized lipase (Novozym-435). The ester conversions of the nanofibers, Novozym-435, the film and lipase powder reached 99.5% at 5 h, 100% at 5 h, 11.5% at 6 h, and 81.1% at 5.75 h, respectively. The nanofibers-immobilized lipase showed higher activity for the esterification than the film-immobilized lipase and lipase powder, probably because it has high specific surface area and high dispersion state of lipase molecules in PVA matrix. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.