Chemoselective enzymatic acylation of glycine as a green route to N-acyl amino acid surfactants

Abstract

N-Acyl amino acids are very important industrial surfactants, being gentle on the skin and completely biodegradable. The synthetic routes described in the literature involve the use of highly reactive acid chlorides or harsh reaction conditions. Following the latest trends in sustainable chemistry, in this work we developed an efficient, chemoselective, and environmentally friendly method for their synthesis, which involves the use of non-toxic enzymes as catalysts. Determining the most suitable starting materials and reaction conditions made it possible to achieve 97% product formation under mild reaction conditions.