Biocatalysis has emerged as a promising alternative to obtain high value products from biomass. Enzymatic systems represent a more efficient and sustainable pathway to the traditional catalytic processes due to their good activity and environmental friendly conditions as lower temperature, neutral pH or the low by-products obtained. Enzymes also show regioselectivity and stereoselectivity which make possible to obtain specific compounds in high yields. Even though bio-materials have remarkable advantages in comparison with conventional catalysts, they still present a limited stability and a difficult recycle which prevent their reuses after the reaction process. In order to overcome current limitations of biocatalysts, we developed a simple and efficient encapsulation process named “bio-silicification” which allows us to use enzymes in classic reaction media avoiding enzyme deactivation and making possible their recycling. In this work, we report the use of bio-silicified laccases as biocatalysts to perform the ring opening and oxidation of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) to 3-hexene-2,5-dione using H2O2 and Urea-H2O2 as oxidizing agent. DMF oxidation was carried out in conventional heating and continuous flow with excellent results in terms of conversion and selectivity towards (Z)-3-hexene-2,5-dione. Our results are a good example how biomaterials can be used in classical organic reactions replacing synthetic catalysts to obtain high added value products using green methodologies. Scheme 1. Bio-silicified laccase activity in the stereoselective ring opening and oxidation of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF).

Novel bio-silicified laccases catalyze 2,5-Dimethylfuran oxidation and stereoselective ring opening

2019 Spring National Meeting

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