Enzyme Reactions in Miniemulsions

Significance

Miniemulsions, homogeneous mixtures of an organic phase with water in which the organic phase is distributed as tiny droplets, are introduced to enantioselective enzyme reactions. The paper compares the shown reactions when carried out in a classical biphasic system to the new reaction conditions. The miniemulsions are prepared by sonification of a mixture of substrate, hexadecane and a 1% solution of tenside (Lutensol AT 50) in water. The enzyme is added after the sonification (it can even be added with the other ingredients, albeit at the cost of slightly reduced conversion). It is found that in all cases the reaction time was decreased roughly by a factor of 2.5. In addition to that, high to very high (500 g L^-1 up to >800 g L^-1) substrate concentrations can be employed. It was also observed that the precipitation of the products did not hamper the reaction.