Browsing by Author "Watson, Mary P."
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Item Oxidative Functionalization of Long-Chain Liquid Alkanes by Pulsed Plasma Discharges at Atmospheric Pressure(ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 2022-11-17) Nguyen, Darien K.; Dimitrakellis, Panagiotis; Talley, Michael R.; O'Dea, Robert M.; Epps, Thomas H. III; Watson, Mary P.; Vlachos, Dionisios G.We introduce the oxidation of long aliphatic alkanes using non-thermal, atmospheric plasma processing as an eco-friendly route for organic synthesis. A pulsed dielectric barrier discharge in He/O2 gas mixtures was employed to functionalize n-octadecane. C18 secondary alcohols and ketones were the main products, with an optimal molar yield of ∼29.2%. Prolonged treatment resulted in the formation of dialcohols, diketones, and higher molecular weight oxygenates. Lighter hydrocarbon products and decarboxylation to CO2 were also observed at longer treatment times and higher power inputs. A maximum energy yield of 5.48 × 10–8 mol/J was achieved at short treatment times and high powers, associated with higher selectivity to primary oxygenates. Direct hydroxylation of alkyl radicals, as well as disproportionation reactions, are proposed as the main pathways to alcohols and ketones. The results hold promise for functionalizing long hydrocarbon molecules at ambient conditions using catalyst-free plasma discharges.Item Reductive Enzyme Cascades for Valorization of Polyethylene Terephthalate Deconstruction Products(ACS Catalysis, 2023-04-07) Gopal, Madan R.; Dickey, Roman M.; Butler, Neil D.; Talley, Michael R.; Nakamura, Daniel T.; Mohapatra, Ashlesha; Watson, Mary P.; Chen, Wilfred; Kunjapur, Aditya M.To better incentivize the collection of plastic wastes, chemical transformations must be developed that add value to plastic deconstruction products. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a common plastic whose deconstruction through chemical or biological means has received much attention. However, a limited number of alternative products have been formed from PET deconstruction, and only a small share could serve as building blocks for alternative materials or therapeutics. Here, we demonstrate the production of useful monoamine and diamine building blocks from known PET deconstruction products. We achieve this by designing one-pot biocatalytic transformations that are informed by the substrate specificity of an ω-transaminase and diverse carboxylic acid reductases (CAR) toward PET deconstruction products. We first establish that an ω-transaminase from Chromobacterium violaceum (cvTA) can efficiently catalyze amine transfer to potential PET-derived aldehydes to form monoamine para-(aminomethyl)benzoic acid (pAMBA) or diamine para-xylylenediamine (pXYL). We then identified CAR orthologs that could perform the bifunctional reduction of terephthalic acid (TPA) to terephthalaldehyde or the reduction of mono-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalic acid (MHET) to its corresponding aldehyde. After characterizing 17 CARs in vitro, we show that the CAR from Segniliparus rotundus (srCAR) had the highest observed activity on TPA. Given these elucidated substrate specificity results, we designed modular enzyme cascades based on coupling srCAR and cvTA in one pot with enzymatic cofactor regeneration. When we supply TPA, we achieve a 69 ± 1% yield of pXYL, which is useful as a building block for polymeric materials. When we instead supply MHET and subsequently perform base-catalyzed ester hydrolysis, we achieve 70 ± 8% yield of pAMBA, which is useful for therapeutic applications and as a pharmaceutical building block. This work expands the breadth of products derived from PET deconstruction and lays the groundwork for eventual valorization of waste PET to higher-value chemicals and materials.