New Enzyme Nanoconjugates for Green Synthesis of Chemicals

Enzyme catalysis with high chemo-, regio-, and stereo-selectivity is appealing for the green synthesis of chemicals, particularly those of complex structures. However and unfortunately, most of the native enzymes that offer high catalytic performances in vivo, display very limited activities in chemical environments, particularly in the presence of organic solvents or at high temperatures. Nanostructured enzyme catalysts that take the advantageous properties of nanomaterial have thus been pursued to overcome above mentioned problems. This presentation summarizes our recent efforts of developing enzyme catalysts for green synthesis of chemicals. Examples include one-step synthesis of chloramphenicol palmitate with substrate-imprinted lipase nanogel, lipase-catalyzed one-step and regioselective synthesis of clindamycin palmitate. One-step synthesis of chloramphenicol palmitate with the imprinted lipase nanogel gave a yield of ~99% and a purity of ~99% within 9 hours. Lipase-catalyzed one-step synthesis of clindamycin palmitate reached a conversion above 90% in 12 hours with a highly regioselective acylation (~100%) at the 2-hydroxyl of clindamycin. Novel nanostructures such as magnetic enzyme nanoparticles and temperature-responsive enzyme nanoconjugates, which facilitate the operation and the recovery of the enzyme catalysts, will also be included.