Optofluidic microreactors for exploration of novel enzyme mimics

用于探索新型酶模拟物的光流控微反应器

• 批准号: 2394385
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2394385
• 关键词: Optofluidic; microreactors; exploration; novel; enzyme

Natural enzymes are exceptionally well-suited to aid the manufacturing of high value products. However, their applications have been limited to few types of enzymes and only a handful of chemical processes they catalyse. Among the general limitations of the enzyme design, one significant limitation is the exploration and validation of the enzyme activity. The use of flavin-based enzymes has been explored to inspire the design of new types of hybrid photocatalysts useful for manufacturing processes, in particular synthesis of novel dyes and pharmaceutical compounds. The study of photocatalytic systems is also of great interest in the field of renewable fuel sources. Solar energy can be converted to chemical fuels through artificial photosynthesis systems, in which photosensitizers play a key role. Commonly used photosensitizers include molecular dyes, TiO2 nanoparticles and semiconductors such as CdSe and CdS. However, dyes are often expensive and difficult to prepare, TiO2 nanoparticles have poor aqueous dispersibility and Cd based systems are toxic and suffer from low elemental abundance[8]. This has led to the emergence of carbon-nanodots (CND) as attractive photosensitizer alternatives. They are low-cost, non-toxic, simple to chemically modify, water soluble and stable. This project will aim to overcome one of the main barriers to advancing the fields of enzyme-mimetic photocatalysts and carbon nanodot (CND) photosensitizers: the lack of quantitative in-situ analysis methods for small reaction volumes. The use of optofluidic microreactors will allow rapid screening of various photocatalytic reactions, acting to develop a greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved. Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres (HC-PCF) will be immobilised with either flavin catalysts or CND through various different immobilisation strategies to create novel photocatalytic microreactors. These microreactors will be used for ultrasensitive spectroscopy within small reaction volumes, including methodologies such as UV-vis, Raman and fluorescent spectroscopy. This will allow robust characterisation of photocatalytic reaction dynamics, steady-state reaction conditions and identification of reaction intermediates and products. Advancing the state of the art will have huge implications for green catalysis, sustainable manufacturing and green solar fuel production. By creating an optical fibre microreactor to study light-driven catalysis, this project closely aligns with the catalysis, analytical science and sensors and instrumentation EPSRC research areas.

天然酶非常适合帮助制造高价值产品。然而，它们的应用仅限于几种类型的酶和它们催化的少数化学过程。在酶设计的一般限制中，一个显著的限制是酶活性的探索和验证。已经探索了基于黄素的酶的使用，以激发可用于制造过程，特别是新型染料和药物化合物的合成的新型混合光催化剂的设计。光催化系统的研究在可再生燃料源领域也具有很大的意义。太阳能可以通过人工光合作用系统转化为化学燃料，其中光敏剂起着关键作用。常用的光敏剂包括分子染料、TiO 2纳米颗粒和半导体如CdSe和CdS。然而，染料通常昂贵且难以制备，TiO 2纳米颗粒的水性差，Cd基体系有毒且元素丰度低[8]。这导致了碳纳米点（CND）作为有吸引力的光敏剂替代品的出现。它们成本低、无毒、化学改性简单、水溶性和稳定性好。该项目旨在克服推进酶模拟光催化剂和碳纳米点（CND）光敏剂领域的主要障碍之一：缺乏小反应体积的定量原位分析方法。光流体微反应器的使用将允许快速筛选各种光催化反应，从而更好地理解所涉及的潜在机制。空芯光子晶体纤维（HC-PCF）将通过各种不同的固定策略固定黄素催化剂或CND，以创建新型光催化微反应器。这些微反应器将用于小反应体积内的超灵敏光谱学，包括诸如紫外-可见、拉曼和荧光光谱学的方法。这将允许光催化反应动力学，稳态反应条件和反应中间体和产物的鉴定的鲁棒表征。推进最新技术将对绿色催化、可持续制造和绿色太阳能燃料生产产生巨大影响。通过创建一个光纤微反应器来研究光驱动催化，该项目与催化，分析科学和传感器和仪器EPSRC研究领域密切相关。