European Chemistry Congress

Biography

Biography: M Paula Robalo

Abstract

The oxidation of molecules is a central transformation in organic chemistry for the introduction of chemical functionality/diversity in simple and available starting materials. Biocatalysis can be faced as a green solution, since enzymes operate under mild reaction conditions, physiological pH and temperature, in a nonpolluting solvent (water) and they have a relatively small environmental footprint. Laccases are multicopper oxidases (EC 1.10.3.2) that catalyze the oxidation of a wide range of substituted phenols and anilines, leading to the formation of value-added products for dye and pharmaceutical industries by more sustainable methodologies and higher yields. The process uses molecular oxygen as the oxidizing agent and produces water as the only by-product, showing clearly environmental advantages. We previously showed that aromatic amines can be transformed by laccases leading to dimeric and trimeric dyes, phenazine, phenoxazinone and benzocarbazole derivatives, with moderate to good yields. These diverse structural motifs were obtained from the homo and heteromolecular coupling of radical intermediates formed directly by the laccase oxidation. These results prompted us to extend our studies to other aromatic substrates looking for the production of different heterocyclic cores, increasing the scope of scaffolds obtained by this approach. These results highlighted the potential of these enzymes for the green production of diverse heterocycle cores, which are well-defined building blocks for the development of biologically active molecules.