Research Information System
JOURNAL OF POLYTECHNIC-POLITEKNIK DERGISI, vol.27, no.4, pp.1213-1222, 2024 (ESCI)
Solvents are among the most critical components in chemical processes. For this reason, in addition to its important properties such as structure, cost and availability, a solvent must be also safe and environmentally friendly. Therefore, the research on the use of green solvents to replace the traditional ones have gained wide interest. 1-phenylethanol is one of the important chiral building blocks which are used for producing fine chemicals in several industries. In this work, it was aimed to produce enantiomerically pure 1-phenylethanol in the green solvent media. Accordingly, propylene carbonate (PC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and 2methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF) were used. Best results were obtained by using DMC. 100% enantiomeric excess for the substrate (ees) s ) and 50% conversion were reached with 240 mM substrate concentration, 20 mg/mL lipase concentration and 3 hours reaction time at 40 degrees C and 250 rpm. In this work; DMC, which is characterized as "one of the greenest solvents", was used as the reaction solvent for the first time in the enzymatic kinetic resolution of racemic 1-phenylethanol. When compared with the literature, in which both traditional and other green solvents were used, it was observed that DMC can replace these solvents, considering its advantageous properties such as low eco-toxicity, high biodegrability and low cost, together with its high ees s and conversion values.