Biocatalysis has
become a powerful tool in synthetic chemistry,
where enzymes are used to produce highly selective products under
mild conditions. Using photocatalytically regenerated cofactors in
synergistic combination with enzymes in a cascade fashion offers an
efficient synthetic route to produce specific compounds. However,
the combination of enzymes and photocatalysts has been limited due
to the rapid degradation of the biomaterials by photogenerated reactive
oxygen species, which denature and deactivate the enzymatic material.
Here, we design core–shell structured porous nano-photoreactors
for highly stable and recyclable photobiocatalysis under aerobic conditions.
The enzymatic cofactor NAD
+
from NADH can be efficiently
regenerated by the photoactive organosilica core, while photogenerated
active oxygen species are trapped and deactivated through the non-photoactive
shell, protecting the enzymatic material. The versatility of these
photocatalytic core–shell nanoreactors was demonstrated in
tandem with two different enzymatic systems, glycerol dehydrogenase
and glucose 1-dehydrogenase, where long-term enzyme stability was
observed for the core–shell photocatalytic system.