Photocatalytic in situ hydrogen peroxide production for biocatalysis based on peroxidases

The use of enzymes such as oxidoreductases in organic synthesis offers highly selective, efficient and therefore sustainable chemical processes. However, industrial utilization of oxidoreductases is often limited by their requirement of expensive cofactors.

Peroxidases have the advantage that their cofactor, hydrogen peroxide, is economically priced and can be easily synthesized. The challenge for utilization of peroxidases is their poor stability against their own cofactor, hydrogen peroxide.

The aim of the project is to provide the peroxidase with ideal and therefore mild concentration of hydrogen peroxide to raise the stability of the enzyme and thereby TTN (total turnover number) of the reaction. For this purpose, the photocatalytic generation of hydrogen peroxide by titanium dioxide and other photocatalysts will be explored and optimized under different conditions. Afterwards, this process will be combined with the Peroxidase to form an integrated photobiocatalytic process (cf. Figure).