Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Center for Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21228, USA.
Biotechnol Bioeng. 1992 Nov;40(9):1011-8. doi: 10.1002/bit.260400904.
The goal of this work was to explore the technical feasibility of an enzymatic approach as an alternative to traditional approaches for phenol separations. Specifically, we examined a two-step approach to selectively remove phenols from mixtures containing nonphenolic isomers. Our model solutes, of molecular formula C(7)H(8)O, were the phenol, cresol; the alkyl aryl ether, anisol; and the alcohol, benzyl alcohol. The first step is this two-step approach employed the enzyme mushroom tyrosinase to selectively convert the phenolic, presumably to an o-quinone product. The tyrosinase was specific for the phenol and was not observed to react with either the ether or the alcohol. The second step of this two-step approach employed a sorbent of an appropriate surface chemistry to bind the products of the tyrosinase-catalysed reaction of phenols. The sorbent used for this study was chitosan. Chitosan was observed to be unable to adsorb either nonphenol and was unable to adsorb unreacted cresol. However, Chittosan effectively adsorbs UV-absorbing reaction products of the tyrosinase-catalysed reaction of phenols. When mixtures of cresol and either anasol or benzyl alcohol were studied, the two-step approach was effective for completely removing the phenolic without loss of either the ether or alcohol or the ether (i.e., phenols were removed with high separation factors).
这项工作的目的是探索酶法作为替代传统酚类分离方法的技术可行性。具体而言，我们研究了从含有非酚类异构体的混合物中选择性去除酚类的两步法。我们的模型溶质，分子式为 C(7)H(8)O，包括酚、甲酚；烷基芳基醚、茴香醚；和醇、苯甲醇。两步法的第一步是使用酶蘑菇酪氨酸酶选择性地将酚类物质，可能转化为邻醌产物。酪氨酸酶对酚类物质具有特异性，并且未观察到与醚或醇发生反应。两步法的第二步使用具有适当表面化学性质的吸附剂来结合酪氨酸酶催化酚类反应的产物。用于本研究的吸附剂是壳聚糖。壳聚糖被观察到不能吸附非酚类物质，也不能吸附未反应的甲酚。然而，壳聚糖有效地吸附酪氨酸酶催化酚类反应的 UV 吸收反应产物。当研究甲酚和茴香醚或苯甲醇的混合物时，两步法可有效地完全去除酚类物质，而不会损失醚或醇或醚（即，酚类物质具有高分离因子）。
