Through collaborative work at CABBI, scientists have taken a crucial step towards more sustainable and eco-friendly consumer products and agricultural chemicals.

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a team investigated a greener class of hydrocarbons, which are used in an array of products from detergues and fuels to medicines. They combined light with natural enzymes. Their work opens up a practical new avenue for the synthesis of high-value compounds with likely applications in agrochemicals, pharmacology and renewable fuels.

The work was described in a paper led by Huimin Zhao – director of the NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute at Illinois, as well as a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of micro and molecular engineering at Illinois – and Maolin Li, a postdoctoral research associate at the Carl R Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, also at Illinois.

By incorporating fluorine, agrochemicals and drugs become more potent. The small size and electrical characteristics, and the ease of accessibility in lipids and oils, enhance the absorption, metabolic stability and protein interactions of the organic compounds. However, the environmental risks of adding fluorine to a substance usually negate any potential green benefits, given the complexity of the chemical processes that are typically used.

The researchers had then used a ‘photoenzyme’, a photoactive enzyme, to introduce the fluorine to these molecules. In their new paper, they used light and photoenzymes to control both the concentration and placement of fluorine bonded to olefins. The process is green and highly selective and good for making new chemicals that were otherwise not easily synthesised.

This approach satisfies a large need in molecular chemistry, as there weren’t many robust methods to incorporate fluorine before. Fluorinated compounds offer new possibilities for improving agricultural goods and medicines since they are generally more potent, stable and long-lasting than their non-fluorinated counterparts. On top of more effective fertilisers and herbicides for crop protection, this could also lead to either less toxic or more potent drugs.

Developing new ways to use biocatalytic processes that increase the yield of bio-based chemicals – alternative fuels and industrial products made from renewable materials such as plants or bacteria – the work helps CABBI achieve its bioenergy goal. The study aims to advance more environmentally friendly and efficient biochemical processes in alignment with CABBI’s goal of developing renewable bioenergy sources with lower environmental impact and less reliance on fossil fuels.

Additionally, it supports the larger mission of the US Department of Energy (DOE) to foster innovation in bioenergy and bioproducts. In line with DOE’s mission of developing clean energy technologies, the methodologies of this study could empower more environmentally sound manufacturing practices by reducing their energy-intensity (and therefore the amount of chemical waste and pollution). This includes the effective synthesis of high-value fluorinated compounds that can lead to advancements in renewable energy and bioproducts critical to economic development and environmental sustainability.