Mechanoenzymatic Transformations in the Absence of Bulk Water: A More Natural Way of Using Enzymes

Sandra Kaabel, Tomislav Friščić*, Karine Auclair*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mechanochemical enzymatic reactions without bulk water have emerged as a low-waste and efficient method to access useful chemicals and to depolymerize biomass components in a single step. This emergent mechanoenzymatic reaction strategy is able to take advantage of the stereospecificity, regio- and stereoselectivity, as well as renewability of enzymes, while avoiding bulk solvents, offering the opportunity to control the direction of the reaction, bypassing reactant solubility issues, and enabling reactions with water-sensitive substrates or products. Enzymes are traditionally used in dilute aqueous solution, which is quite different from their crowded, water-depleted natural environment. This review outlines recent work which demonstrates that enzymes can be equally or even more efficient under mechanochemical conditions, without bulk aqueous or organic solvent.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)742-758
JournalChemBioChem
Volume21
Issue number6
Early online date25 Oct 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Mar 2020
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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