Biphasic biocatalysis using a CO₂-switchable Pickering emulsion

Abstract

Biphasic biocatalyses were performed in a CO2/N2-switchable Pickering emulsion, in which demulsification and recycling of enzymes can be realized via a N2/CO2 trigger.

Recent developments in catalysis with Pickering Emulsions

“…with respect to resources used, energy consumption and process intensification. 93,[119][120][121] Provided that the reactions that are catalyzed are in and of themselves sound (i.e. the 'right thing' is to target a chemical conversion based on renewables and with benign reagents), PE catalysis can ensure that 'the right thing is done right", i.e.…”

Responsive Emulsions for Sequential Multienzyme Cascades

“…This stimuli responsiveness allowed the controllable emulsification and demulsification, which were successfully explored for oil recovery [20] and chemocatalysis [21] . However, until now, stimuli‐responsive emulsions for biocatalysis have been relatively underdeveloped, [13c, 22] and to the best of our knowledge, they have never been explored for multienzyme cascades despite their potential to improve reaction compatibility and reduce cross‐reactivity.…”

Catalysis in Pickering emulsions

“…In general, examples of PAC are widely found in the field of biocatalysis, where the enzyme (catalyst) is dissolved in the aqueous phase and the solid particles are located at the liquidliquid interface. 15,22,24,47,[54][55][56][57] In most of these examples, silica particles were selected as the emulsifier for the preparation of w/o emulsions to study hydrolysis and esterification reactions using lipase enzymes as the biocatalyst dissolves in water. However, in ref.…”

“…However, in ref. 24, an o/w emulsion is prepared with the enzyme dispersed in the continuous phase and in ref. 47 the biocatalyst is found in the IL phase constituting an IL/o emulsion.…”

“…23 Finally, regarding the effect of the oil-to-water ratio, Yu et al studied this on the catalytic efficiency for the hydrolysis of olive oil in o/w Pickering emulsions. 24 A higher efficiency of the enzymatic transformation was achieved upon decreasing the volume fraction of oil in the emulsion due to a reduction in the droplet size. However, to fully understand the effect of the volume fraction of drops, the droplet size should be kept constant.…”