Issue 4, 2025

Investigating silicatein selectivity and specificity in silicon–oxygen bond condensation and metathesis

Abstract

Silyl ethers are an important group of compounds containing Si–O bonds with a variety of applications, but their formation currently relies on reagents that are undesirable from a sustainability perspective. This study is a further investigation of the biocatalytic silylation of alcohols using silanols or silyl ethers as the silyl donor, with the recombinant enzyme silicatein-α as the catalyst. It was found that the model enzyme-catalysed reactions gave better conversion of phenol to its corresponding phenoxy silane compared to the aliphatic n-octanol. The enzyme was selective for phenols and did not catalyse disiloxane formation. In addition, it was observed that the optimum temperature for the enzymatic conversion was 75 °C. The enzyme also showed superior catalysis compared to conventional small molecule base catalysts such as imidazole and triethylamine.

Graphical abstract: Investigating silicatein selectivity and specificity in silicon–oxygen bond condensation and metathesis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Aug 2024
Accepted
10 Jan 2025
First published
13 Jan 2025
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025,15, 1009-1015

Investigating silicatein selectivity and specificity in silicon–oxygen bond condensation and metathesis

C. S. Egedeuzu, P. G. Taylor and L. S. Wong, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025, 15, 1009 DOI: 10.1039/D4CY00985A

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