Organometallic substrates of enzymes: lipase catalysed transesterifications in organic solvents via O-stannyl ethers
Lipases from pig pancreas and from Chromobacterium viscosum (but not from Candida cylindracea) catalyze transesterification reactions between ethyl esters of carboxylic acids and tributylstannyl ethers of primary and secondary alcohols.At concentrations 1M or higher in anhydrous hydrocarbons, use of these nucleophilic derivatives of alcohols gives reaction rates ca. three times higher than those for the corresponding alcohols.