Cascade reactions in nanoreactors

• Various nanoreactors have been developed to compartmentalize catalysts.
• These multicatalyst nanoreactors have been successfully applied in one-pot cascade reactions.
• Multienzyme systems have intensively been studied, but lack synthetic relevance so far.
• Enzyme/metal catalyst or organocatalyst combinations have great potential in cascade reactions.

In an attempt to mimic the biosynthetic efficiencies of nature and in a search for greener, more sustainable alternatives to nowadays ways of producing chemicals, one-pot cascade reactions have attracted a lot of attention in the past decade. Since most catalysts are not compatible with each other, compartmentalization techniques have often been applied to prevent catalyst inactivation. A various array of nanoreactors have been developed to meet the demand of having a site-isolated catalyst system, while maintaining the catalyst activity. Both multienzyme nanoreactors as well as enzyme/metal catalyst or organocatalyst systems have shown great potential in one-pot cascade reactions and hold promise for future developments in this field.

Figure optionsDownload high-quality image (114 K)Download as PowerPoint slide