Effect of compressed CO2 on the chloroperoxidase catalyzed halogenation of 1,3-dihydroxybenzene in reverse micelles

Abstract

The effect of compressed CO₂ on the specific activity of chloroperoxidase (CPO) to catalyze the chlorination of 1,3-dihydroxybenzene in cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC)/H₂O/octane/pentanol reverse micellar solution was studied. The results show that the specific activity of the enzyme can be enhanced significantly by compressed CO₂, and the specific activity can be tuned continuously by changing pressure. The mechanism for the specific activity enhancement of the enzyme by CO₂ was also studied. We believe that compressed CO₂ can be utilized to tune some other enzyme catalytic reactions in different reverse micellar systems with potential advantages.