Pickering Emulsion Strategy for Multi-Catalytic Reactions

Abstract

Enantiomers of a chiral compound often exhibit distinct physiological activities, making enantioselective synthesis of chiral molecules a critical challenge in drug discovery. This study explored a novel strategy for converting racemic compounds into a single enantiomer using enzymes, with a focus on developing a methodology to access both enantiomers of chiral esters using a single lipase and enantioconvergent reactions of tertiary alcohols. The desired transformations were achieved by designing multi-catalytic systems that enabled lipases to combine with otherwise incompatible catalysts and reactants using Pickering emulsions as compartmentalized reaction media.