Solvent‐Free Lipase‐Catalyzed Transesterification of Alcohols with Methyl Esters Under Vacuum‐Assisted Conditions

Abstract Recent progress of the catalytic promiscuity of enzymes have invigorated the use of biocatalysis in organic chemistry. Explorations of biocatalysis for the synthesis of esters are critical since up to now, existing traditional methods are complicated, which usually require long reaction times, microwaves or even toxic reagents. This paper presents a versatile biocatalytic methodology to obtain benzyl esters through a transesterification reaction of methyl esters with Candida antarctica lipase B (CaLB) and benzyl alcohol in the absence of solvent. In addition, the effect of the nucleophile size and the substituent directly attached to the carbonyl group was studied. The results show that, in some cases, using a vacuum shifts the equilibrium of the reaction towards the products. Based on these results, molecular docking studies were carried out, where specific regions in the CaLB catalytic cavity were analyzed.