Photoenzymatic Catalytic Process with Reaction-Separation Coupling for the Synthesis of Biobased Plasticizers

Isooctyl epoxyoleate is a biobased plasticizer with excellent properties. To eliminate the risks of hydrogen peroxide storage and enzyme deactivation during the enzymatic synthesis of biobased plasticizers and reduce the separation cost of the process, we developed a greener process driven by light to generate hydrogen peroxide online for the enzyme-catalyzed epoxidation of isooctyl oleate. In this system, hydrophobic biobased carbonized pollen is used for the photocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide, with a maximum concentration of 14.6 mM after 150 min. After spontaneous phase separation, a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide was used in the lipase-catalyzed epoxidation process, and the highest conversion rate of the isooctyl epoxyoleate was found to be 95.7% after 4 h. It was also verified through molecular docking that there is no steric hindrance problem in the enzyme catalytic reaction. The process revealed new sustainable and economic methods for synthesizing bioplasticizers through the cascade catalysis of light enzymes.