Novel transesterification reactions to produce specialty building blocks with novozyme 435.

What is it about?

Acrylic esters are interesting building blocks for today’s chemical industry. They are widely used for the production of high-performance polymers with applications in plexiglass and paints. The vinyl function of the acrylic esters makes it possible to cross-link the monomers through radical polymerisation of the double bond. Hence a wide variety of polyacrylates can be produced with a broad range of characteristics. In the paper, the novozym 435 reactions of different alcohols with different esters were evaluated. The reaction using n-octanol and methyl acrylate as ester and alcohol substrate, respectively was further optimised.

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Why is it important?

In the production of green chemicals, new compounds are sought to polymerise to new materials with the desired and improved proporties. Enzymatic conversion instead of a chemical process is more environmentally friendly.