January 2015 – Green Chemistry Blog

Archive for January, 2015

Thin film approach to biocatalysis

30 Jan 2015

This lipase is one of the most largely employed enzymes in industry © Valerio Ferrario

Taking an unconventional approach to biocatalysis has allowed scientists in Italy to improve enzyme recyclability with a solvent-free reaction mixture. And by emphasising a need to design processes, biocatalysts and reactors together, instead of separately, they hope to widen the industrial applications of nature’s catalysts.

Lucia Gardossi, from the University of Trieste in Italy, has been investigating solvent-free reaction mixtures, which appeal to industry because of their comparably small production volumes and lack of organic solvents to dispose of. Although their efficiency and selectivity are attractive, biocatalysed versions of industrial reactions are rarely economically viable. The typically viscous reaction mixtures require vigorous mixing, which damages the enzymes and limits their recyclability.

For the full story from Debbie, make sure to take a look at the page on Chemistry World!

This original research article is free to access unitl 11 March 2015. Download it here:

A Pellis et al, Green Chem., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/c4gc02289k

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New Green Chemistry Board Members: Motomu Kanai and Helen Sneddon

20 Jan 2015

We are delighted to welcome Professor Motomu Kanai and Dr Helen Sneddon as new Editorial Board members for Green Chemistry.

Motomu Kanai

Professor Motomu Kanai was born in 1967 in Tokyo, Japan, and received his bachelor degree from The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) in 1989 under the direction of late Professor Kenji Koga. In the middle of his PhD course in UTokyo (in 1992), he obtained an assistant professor position in Osaka University under the direction of Professor Kiyoshi Tomioka. He obtained his PhD from Osaka University in 1995. Then, he moved to University of Wisconsin, USA, for postdoctoral studies with Professor Laura L. Kiessling. In 1997 he returned to Japan and joined Professor Masakatsu Shibasaki’s group in UTokyo as an assistant professor. After doing lecturer (2000~2003) and associate professor (2003~2010), he is currently a professor in UTokyo (since 2010). He is also the PI of ERATO Kanai Life Science Project (since 2011). He has received The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists (2001), Thieme Journals Award (2003), Merck-Banyu Lectureship Award (MBLA: 2005), and Asian Core Program Lectureship Award (2008 and 2010, from Thailand, Malaysia, and China). His research interests entail design and synthesis of functional molecules, such as catalysts and drug lead molecules.

Helen Sneddon

Dr Helen Sneddon read Natural Sciences at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, and stayed at Cambridge to complete her PhD in organic chemistry, on b-keto-dithianes and their application to the synthesis of natural products, with Professor Steven V. Ley. After postdoctoral work on the asymmetric catalytic chemistry of Palladium (II) with Professor Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine, she joined GlaxoSmithKline at Stevenage, UK in 2007 as a medicinal chemist, working on respiratory medicines. In late 2011 she founded GSK’s Green Chemistry Performance Unit, a team she continues to lead, looking at improving the environmental sustainability of research and development, and the routes arising from it. She was made Honorary Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Nottingham in August 2014. She has particular interests in solvent and reagent selection and the development of more efficient transformations.

Take a look at some of their recent contributions to Royal Society of Chemistry journals:

Reaction mediated artificial cell termination: control of vesicle viability using Rh(I)-catalyzed hydrogenation
Hirokazu Komatsu, Yuki Daimon, Kohsaku Kawakami, Motomu Kanai, Jonathan P. Hill and Katsuhiko Ariga
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4CP02255F, Paper

Catalytic enantioselective synthesis of 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)indole scaffolds via consecutive intramolecular amido-cupration of allenes and asymmetric addition of carbonyl compounds
Prasanna Kumara Chikkade, Yohei Shimizu and Motomu Kanai
Chem. Sci., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C3SC52803K, Edge Article

Sustainable chromatography (an oxymoron?)
Emily A. Peterson, Barry Dillon, Izzat Raheem, Paul Richardson, Daniel Richter, Rachel Schmidt and Helen F. Sneddon
Green Chem., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4GC00615A, Perspective

Development of GSK’s reagent guides – embedding sustainability into reagent selection
Joseph P. Adams, Catherine M. Alder, Ian Andrews, Ann M. Bullion, Matthew Campbell-Crawford, Michael G. Darcy, John D. Hayler, Richard K. Henderson, Catriona A. Oare, Israil Pendrak, Anikó M. Redman, Leanna E. Shuster, Helen F. Sneddon and Matthew D. Walker
Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40225H, Paper

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Professor Martyn Poliakoff knighted in the New Year’s Honours list

15 Jan 2015

Professor Martyn Poliakoff

Green Chemistry is delighted to announce that Professor Martyn Poliakoff has been awarded a Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list.

Professor Poliakoff is closely associated with Green Chemistry and was Chair of the Editorial Board from 2006–2012. He says, “I have been associated with Green Chemistry almost from the outset, and I continue to regard it as the leading journal in the field. Long may it continue!”

Professor Poliakoff is an inorganic chemist, whose work has been taken up by industry, notably in the construction of the world’s first multi-reaction supercritical fluid plant. He is a global leader in the field of green and sustainable chemistry and his work in engaging the public with chemistry has been recognised internationally, including through the Periodic Table of Videos on YouTube. Make sure to take a look at the special video made recently to announce the knighthood for Professor Polaikoff online here. Shortly before Christmas he was also elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Poliakoff said “I feel both honoured and somewhat overwhelmed. I see the award very much as recognition of all the work being done in green and sustainable chemistry in the School of Chemistry by my colleagues, by my research team and by our technical staff whose efforts underpin so much of our research.”

Professor Sir David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, said: “What a richly deserved accolade. Sir Martyn contributes so much as a research leader, educator and communicator of science to the wider public. He will receive this honour with his customary modesty, but will be surprised at how widely applauded it is. We are very proud to have him as a colleague.”

Professor Kenneth Seddon

Professor Kenneth Seddon, Green Chemistry Advisory Board member, has also been honoured in the New Year’s Honours list with an OBE for services to Chemistry.

In addition to his ground-breaking research into ionic liquids Professor Seddon has also been very busy recently, having been involved with a featured exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, presenting the Inaugural Lecture of the “Frontiers of Knowledge Lecture Series”, House of Commons, receiving four IChemE awards, the Nicklin medal, and the RSC Teamwork award.

The New Year Honours lists recognise the achievements of a wide range of extraordinary people across the UK, you can read more about them here.

Take a look at some recent contributions to Green Chemistry from Martyn Poliakoff and Kenneth Seddon. These are all free to access until the end of February.

15 years of Green Chemistry
James Clark, Roger Sheldon, Colin Raston, Martyn Poliakoff and Walter Leitner
DOI: 10.1039/C3GC90047A, Editorial

Synthesis of metal–organic frameworks by continuous flow
Peter A. Bayliss, Ilich A. Ibarra, Eduardo Pérez, Sihai Yang, Chiu C. Tang, Martyn Poliakoff and Martin Schröder
DOI: 10.1039/C4GC00313F, Paper

Synthesis of antimalarial trioxanes via continuous photo-oxidation with ¹O₂ in supercritical CO₂
Jessica F. B. Hall, Richard A. Bourne, Xue Han, James H. Earley, Martyn Poliakoff and Michael W. George
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36711D, Paper

Enhanced laccase stability through mediator partitioning into hydrophobic ionic liquids
Lars Rehmann, Ekaterina Ivanova, H. Q. Nimal Gunaratne, Kenneth R. Seddon and Gill Stephens
DOI: 10.1039/C3GC42189A, Paper

Tailoring ionic liquid catalysts: structure, acidity and catalytic activity of protonic ionic liquids based on anionic clusters, [(HSO₄)(H₂SO₄)_x]⁻ (x = 0, 1, or 2)
Karolina Matuszek, Anna Chrobok, Fergal Coleman, Kenneth R. Seddon and Małgorzata Swadźba-Kwaśny
DOI: 10.1039/C4GC00415A, Paper

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Mild synthesis of alkaloids using chemoenzymatic cascades

13 Jan 2015

Open access communication: One-pot triangular chemoenzymatic cascades for the synthesis of chiral alkaloids from dopamine

Researchers at UCL, UK, have developed a novel use of one-pot, multi-step enzymatic catalysis for the synthesis of chiral alkaloids. Transaminase (TAm) and norcoclaurine synthase (NCS) were employed as catalysts. In the synthesis of the tetrahydroprotoberberine product two carbon-carbon bonds are created under mild conditions with good enantiomeric purity (ee >95%), all in a short duration (3.5 hours).

The successive Pictet-Spengler cyclisation reactions provide an atom economic approach and high enantioselectivity to the formation of this valuable class of products. The authors of this work recognise the “remarkable potential of in vitro biocatalysis for the formation of complex chiral compounds“, which is increasingly important to contemporary green chemistry.

This article is open access and available to everyone to read for free:

One-pot triangular chemoenzymatic cascades for the synthesis of chiral alkaloids from dopamine

B. R. Lichman, E. D. Lamming, T. Pesnot, J. M. Smith, H. C. Hailes and J. M. Ward

Green Chem., 2015, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C4GC02325K

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Green Chemistry Blog

Archive for January, 2015

Thin film approach to biocatalysis

New Green Chemistry Board Members: Motomu Kanai and Helen Sneddon

Professor Martyn Poliakoff knighted in the New Year’s Honours list

Mild synthesis of alkaloids using chemoenzymatic cascades

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