Dual functionalization of mesoporous organosilicon nanoflowers enhances heterogeneous chemoenzymatic conversion of alkynes toward enantiopure alcohols

Abstract

A tandem chemoenzymatic cascade for the direct synthesis of chiral alcohols from bulk alkynes is promising but challenging, as it couples the gold-catalysed alkyne hydration with an alcohol dehydrogenase-driven asymmetric reduction of the resulting ketones. Herewith two heterogeneous bifunctional catalysts are fabricated for chemocatalytic and biocatalytic steps, respectively. The bi-functionalized chemocatalyst (Au@HS/SO3H-DON), which possesses both Au NPs and Brønsted acid catalytic sites, exhibits superior catalytic performance and better reusability compared to those of homogeneous Au(III) catalysts. The bi-functionalized biocatalyst (ADH@QA-DON) exhibits enhanced reusability over free ADH and enriches NADH, enhancing the overall catalytic performance. Various chiral alcohols are directly obtained from alkynes with high yields (73%–92%) and enantioselectivity (>99% ee) via tandem cascade reactions catalyzed by bifunctional chemo- and biocatalysts. By fabricating a continuous-flow system, a space–time yield (STY) of 4.69 g L−1 h−1 for (S)-1-phenylethanol can be achieved, which is 6.7-fold higher than that obtained in batch.

Graphical abstract: Dual functionalization of mesoporous organosilicon nanoflowers enhances heterogeneous chemoenzymatic conversion of alkynes toward enantiopure alcohols

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 May 2025
Accepted
24 Jun 2025
First published
02 Jul 2025

Green Chem., 2025, Advance Article

Dual functionalization of mesoporous organosilicon nanoflowers enhances heterogeneous chemoenzymatic conversion of alkynes toward enantiopure alcohols

C. Huang, Q. Zhang, X. Yue, A. Lu, G. Liu, Y. He, L. Ma, L. Zhou, Y. Liu and Y. Jiang, Green Chem., 2025, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5GC02373D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements