Researchers Design Enzyme-Mimicking Polymers Promising Greener Industrial Practices
The Knight Group
August 9, 2024 | By Dave DeFusco
Researchers in the Chemistry Department’s Knight Group have unveiled significant advancements in the design and functionality of synthetic polymer catalysts, which could have major implications for various industrial chemical processes. The study, “Leveraging Triphenylphosphine-Containing Polymers to Explore Design Principles for Protein-Mimetic Catalysts,” was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Catalysts are substances that increase the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process. The research, led by Dr. Abigail Knight, the principal investigator and senior author of the study, focused on synthetic polymer catalysts, which are materials designed to mimic the behavior of natural enzymes. Unlike natural enzymes, synthetic polymers can be customized to work under a wide range of conditions, making them more versatile for industrial applications.
“The goal is to create synthetic materials that can perform complex tasks like biological proteins, offering more versatile and robust options for industrial applications,” said Matthew Sanders, a lead author of the paper and Ph.D. student in chemistry. “This research is still in the early stages, but it is an important step toward developing new materials to solve complex problems.”
Using a well-known chemical reaction called the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling, the scientists investigated how different structural elements within these polymers affect their catalytic performance. This reaction is vital in creating many pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals, making it a prime candidate for improving catalyst efficiency.
The idea is to mimic the structure and function of proteins in these synthetic materials to achieve better performance; proteins have complex structures fine-tuned by evolution that have binding sites specialized for target functions, including catalysis.
“Synthetic polymers, like plastics, could be designed to have similar structures to proteins,” said Supraja Chittari, a co-author of the paper and a Ph.D. student in chemistry, “potentially making them more effective in industrial processes, like drug manufacturing.”
The team created polymers containing a new building block, called BisTPPAm (bifunctional triphenylphosphine acrylamide) and compared it with a similar compound called TPPAm (triphenylphosphine acrylamide). They added these building blocks to protein-like polymer materials used to speed up chemical reactions and found that the polymers with BisTPPAm made the reactions start faster than those with TPPAm.
Further investigations revealed that adding features similar to those in natural enzymes, like components driving more compact structures or positive charges, improved how well the catalysts worked. These features allowed them to adjust the catalysts’ properties, making them more versatile and efficient catalysts.
One of the most promising aspects of this research is the potential application of these findings in environmentally friendly solvents. The study demonstrated that the effectiveness of the polymer catalysts varied depending on the solvent used, with some performing exceptionally well in ethanol-water mixtures. Further, with cheminformatics, where computational tools are used to describe chemical trends, the team developed an algorithm that predicts the efficiency of the catalyst for coupling specific molecules. This opens the door to more sustainable industrial processes, reducing the reliance on harmful chemicals.
“What this study showed is by mimicking the intricate structures and interactions of natural enzymes, these materials can achieve high efficiency and versatility under a wide range of conditions,” said Dr. Knight. “The ability to fine-tune these catalysts for specific reactions and use them in environmentally benign solvents marks a significant step forward in sustainable chemical manufacturing.”