Green Oxidation Catalysts: Computational Design of High-Efficiency Models of Galactose Oxidase

✍ Scribed by Leonardo Guidoni; Katrin Spiegel; Martin Zumstein; Ursula Röthlisberger

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 134 KB
• Volume: 116
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/ange.200454081

✦ Synopsis

The metalloenzyme galactose oxidase (GOase) is a highly efficient catalyst for the two-electron oxidation of a broad variety of primary alcohols. This enzyme is capable of catalytic oxidations in water, making direct use of the molecular oxygen of the air. Even polyalcohols are converted, in a highly regio and stereoselective way, into the corresponding aldehydes. This elegant synthetic route stands out against the stoichiometric alternatives of the same reaction as performed by traditional inorganic oxidants. Not surprisingly, GOase thus constitutes a highly attractive target for the development of biomimetic strategies aimed at the design of environmentally friendly, green oxidation catalysts. [1] During the last years, this enzyme has inspired a variety of groups to design synthetic analogues. Although different classes of spectroscopic, [2] structural [3] and even functional [4][5][6][7][8][9] models of GOase have been characterized, none of them is as yet able to compete with the natural enzyme in terms of catalytic efficiency. For the few existing functional models, rates of turnover lie still approximately four orders of magnitude