Deep eutectic solvents as reaction media for chemoenzymatic cascades in continuous flow

在精细化学品的生产过程中，溶剂往往占据着质量平衡的主导地位，而且它们的很大一部分用于强化净化程序。流动化学的主要优点之一是能够在单个连续过程中进行多步合成，从而消除了纯化中间体的需要。化学催化和酶催化在连续流中的结合有可能实现复杂分子的独特过程，并将成为行业实现净零挑战的关键因素。然而，由于化学催化通常在有机溶剂中进行，而酶催化通常需要水环境，因此无缝地拉伸这两种形式的催化是困难的。深共晶溶剂（DES）作为化学催化和生物催化相互兼容的反应介质已经出现，并可能使新的化学酶级联反应在连续流动中发展。此外，DES与大多数有机溶剂不混溶，可用于从反应混合物中提取产物，并允许DES在未来的反应中循环使用。本项目侧重于DES在连续流中促进化学酶级联的应用，并将探索使用液-液分离器等在线净化技术在整个过程中回收DES。据设想，多步连续流合成和溶剂回收的结合将为复杂产品带来更可持续的工艺。

Solvents tend to dominate the mass balance of manufacturing processes for fine chemicals and a large portion of their use is dedicated to intensive purification procedures. One of the major advantages of flow chemistry is the ability to perform multistep synthesis in a single continuous process which eliminates the need to purify intermediates. The combination of chemical catalysis and enzymatic catalysis in continuous flow has potential to realise unique processes for complex molecules and will be a key contributor for industry meeting net zero challenges. However, seamlessly telescoping these two forms of catalysis is difficult due to their divergent reaction conditions as chemical catalysis is typically performed in organic solvents and enzymatic catalysis often requires an aqueous environment. Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have arisen as reaction media that is mutually compatible with both chemo- and bio-catalysis and may enable new chemoenzymatic cascades to be developed in continuous flow. Additionally, DES are immiscible with most organic solvents which can be used to extract the products from the reaction mixture and allow the DES to be recycled in future reactions. This project focuses on the application of DES to facilitate chemoenzymatic cascades in continuous flow and will explore the use of inline purification technology such as liquid-liquid separators to recycle the DES throughout the process. It is envisaged the combination of multistep continuous flow synthesis and solvent recycling will lead to more sustainable processes for complex products.