Biocatalytic reduction of ketones in a secondary school laboratory

Abstract Biocatalysis is one of the most important industrial methods which has been increasingly attracting attention of scientists as a new and environmentally acceptable method. It is used in the preparation of chiral alcohols - important building blocks for the synthesis of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and analogues of natural substances. In biocatalysis the use of traditional chiral agents based on heavy metals has been replaced by the use of enzymes. In many cases, the number of reaction steps has been limited, the selectivity of the desired products has been increased while the negative impact on the environment has been reduced. The principles of biocatalysis have been applied by us to design a simple chemical experiment for the students of higher secondary education. The modified assignment of a lab task consisted of bioreduction of 4-nitroacetophenone using the enzymes present in plant tissues of carrot, parsley and white radish. Within our pedagogical research, the adequacy of the chemical experiment for secondary school students was examined and the extent of understanding of the green chemistry experiment was analysed by the method of a semi-structured interview.