Efficient enzymatic kinetic resolution of 2-heptylamine with a highly active acyl donor

Novozyme435 facilitated kinetic resolution of 2-heptylamine was here presented. Methyl methoxyacetate was used as acyl donor. A survey of influencing factors including hydrogen bonding effect, solvent effect, steric effect, temperature and the amount of acyl donor were investigated in detail. At the optimum conditions, the enantiomeric separation was successfully obtained within 8 h at 20 °C, and gave high conversion and optical purity of (R)-2-heptylamine, 48.9% and over 99% respectively. The immobilized lipase B was found to be suitable for the enantiomeric separation of aliphatic amines with good recyclability.