Chimia最新文献

Excelzyme, an enzyme engineering platform located at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, is dedicated to accelerating the development of tailored biocatalysts for large-scale industrial applications. Leveraging automation and advanced computational techniques, including machine learning, efficient biocatalysts can be generated in short timeframes. Toward this goal, Excelzyme systematically selects suitable protein scaffolds as the foundation for constructing complex enzyme libraries, thereby enhancing sequence and structural biocatalyst diversity. Here, we describe applied workflows and technologies as well as an industrial case study that exemplifies the successful application of the workflow.

Heterogeneous catalysis is essential to most industrial chemical processes. To achieve a better sustainability of these processes we need highly efficient and highly selective catalysts that are based on earth-abundant materials rather than the more conventional noble metals. Here, we discuss the potential of inorganic materials as catalysts for chemical transformations focusing in particular on the promising transition metal phosphides and sulfides. We describe our recent and current efforts to understand the interfacial chemistry of these materials that governs catalysis, and to tune catalytic reactivity by controlled chemical modification of the material surfaces and by use of interfacial electric fields.

Chiral molecules exist in two forms, called enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other but non-superimposable. Even though enantiomers share most chemical and physical properties, they may differ greatly in their (bio-)chemical activities, which turns chirality into a key design feature for (bio-)chemical function. In this spirit, the incorporation of chiral structures into photochemical systems has emerged as a powerful strategy to control their functions. For example, uni-directional molecular motors, chiral photocatalysts, and chiral metal nanostructures permit new levels of stereocontrol over mechanical motion, energy transfer, and electric charge-carriers on the nanoscale. However, the direct characterization of the underlying chiral photoexcited states remains a formidable experimental challenge - especially in the native solution phase of many photochemical processes. Crucially, this requires analytical techniques that combine a high chiral sensitivity in solution with ultrafast time resolution to capture the excited state dynamics. This brief perspective article presents recent progress in the development of ultrafast chiral spectroscopy techniques that address this challenge.

Modern societies rely heavily on centralized industrial processes to generate a multitude of products ranging from electrical energy to synthetic chemical building blocks to construction materials. To date, these processes have relied extensively on energy produced from fossil fuels, which has led to dramatically increased quantities of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide) being released into the atmosphere; the effects of the ensuing change to our climate are easily observed in day-to-day life. Some of the reactions catalyzed by these industrial processes can be catalyzed in nature by metal-containing enzymes (metalloenzymes) that have evolved over the course of up to 3.8 billion years to do so under mild physiological conditions using Earth-abundant metals. While such metalloenzymes could in principle facilitate the implementation of carbon-neutral processes around the globe, either in "bio-inspired" catalyst design or even by direct exploitation, many remaining questions surrounding their mechanisms often preclude both options. Here, our recent efforts in understanding and applying metalloenzymes that catalyze reactions such as dinitrogen reduction to ammonia or proton reduction to molecular hydrogen are discussed. In closing, an opinion on the question: "Can these types of enzymes really be used in new biotechnologies?" is offered.