Molecular Info®

Molecular Info® Copy Right © 2001 Institute of Molecular Development LLC

Conversion of pyrrole to pyrrole-2-carboxylate by cells of Bacillus megaterium in supercritical CO2 Tomoko Matsuda, Yoichi Ohashi, Tadao Harada, Reiko Yanagihara, Toru Nagasawa and Kaoru Nakamura The Chemical Communications , October 2001. The development of CO2 fixation reactions on organic molecules is one of the challenges in synthetic chemistry. Although enzymes in nature catalyze reactions in aqueous media, their use in supercritical CO2 has been attracting increasing attention due to its gas-like low viscosities and high diffusivities and its liquid-like solubilizing power, and mostly hydrolytic enzymes have been used in supercritical fluids to improve their functions, i.e., faster reaction rates. Pyrrole was converted to pyrrole-2-carboxylate in supercritical CO2 using cells of Bacillus megaterium PYR 2910, and the yield of the carboxylation reaction in supercritical CO2 was 12 times higher than that under atmospheric pressure.