Enzyme-metal-single-atom hybrid catalysts for one-pot chemoenzymatic reactions

Abstract

Combining enzymatic and single-metal-atom catalysis is a promising approach for green chemical synthesis. We herein report a one-pot chemoenzymatic cascade reaction to asymmetric synthesize (R)-1-(4-biphenyl) ethanol by using the highly active and selective enzyme-metal-single-atom hybrid as the catalyst. We demonstrate that the Pd single atoms anchored lipase (Pd1/CALB-P) can efficiently drive one-pot cascade reactions in aqueous solution at 30 °C to achieve facile synthesis of chiral biaryl alcohols, which are important pharmaceutical intermediates that traditionally require complex synthesis procedures. The rate of (R)-1-(4-biphenyl) ethanol formation catalyzed by Pd1/CALB-P is more than 30-fold higher than that of the combination of commercial palladium on carbon (Pd/C) and lipase-pluronic conjugate (CALB-P). The enzyme-metal-single-atom hybrid catalyst provides a promising strategy for effectively merging the enzymatic and single-atom catalysis.