Effect of Solvent on Lipase-Catalyzed Transesterification in Organic Media

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4020(01)85007-9

Lipase-catalyzed transesterifications of cis- and trans-4-methylcyclohexanols with vinyl acetate in various organic solvents have been studied, and the effect of solvent on activity and stereoselectivity of lipase has been investigated.Initial rate of the reaction increases with the increase in hydrophobicity of the solvent excerting a good correlation with logP', a corrected index of logP.However, since the stereoselectivity is also affected by molecularity of the solvent, the correlation between stereoselectivity factor, γ, and log P' is poor.The solvent effect on the stereoselectivity has been correlated with excellent linearity by the aid of two-parameter relationship; γ=a(ε_r-1)/(2ε_r+1)+bV_m, where ε_r and V_m denote dielectric constant and molar volume of the solvent, respectively.