Dutch Focus


Organic catalysts are essential for a number of industrial applications, but their inability to work within the same system or in water means that their efficiency is somewhat limited. Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology believe that they may have solved this problem by taking a leaf out of the structure of nature’s own catalysts – enzymes


Mimicking enzyme structures for improved organic catalysis


Enzymes are highly


selective


and


effective catalysts, used both in the body and for industrial well-defined,


dimensional structures mean that substrates, making is applications. Their


compartmentalised three- their


active sites are highly specific to their particular


that enzyme


catalysis extremely efficient. A crucial characteristic of enzymes


their


outside is hydrophilic, allowing them to work in the watery environment of


the


body, while the inside – where the active site is situated – is hydrophobic. Catalysts used in organic chemistry, on


the other hand, are quite different to enzymes. They are typically much smaller molecules that do not have large three- dimensional structures around them, and thus


tend However, it to be much less is often the case that


selective. these


catalysts can stimulate reactions that enzymes cannot. Is there a way to get the best of both


worlds? Dr Anja Palmans of the Eindhoven University of Technology thinks so. “We can mimic the three-dimensional structure of an enzyme using polymer chains,’


she explains. compartmentalised 14 “Using what


known as a supramolecular unit, we


can fold these chains architectures


is


recognition into very


“When making drugs, for example, the current process involves carrying out one reaction, isolating the product and then purifying the product before moving on to the next reaction and repeating the whole process”


The possibilities opened up by this


research are numerous. Enzyme-like activity in a completely synthetic system could be used for reaction cascades in which multiple reactions are occurring at


similar to enzymes, which we can then insert a catalytic core into. The folded polymer chain will have a hydrophilic outer surface similar to an enzyme, allowing


this work in water.” synthetic catalyst to


Substrates --> Products


once in the same environment. making drugs,


for example, “When the current


process involves carrying out one reaction, isolating the product and then purifying the product before moving on to the next reaction and repeating the whole process,” explains


Palmans. “This is because


standard organic catalysts tend to inhibit or alter each other’s activity and so cannot be used within the same system.”


Insight Publishers | Projects


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68