Electrochemically Driven Enzymatic Oxidative Desymmetrization for the Enantioselective Construction of Silicon Stereocenter

ABSTRACT Chiral silicon‐stereogenic organosilanes are finding increasingly widespread applications in pharmaceutical science and biomedical materials. However, the enzymatic construction of silicon chiral centers remains underdeveloped. Here, we report the integration of thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)‐dependent radical biocatalysis and mediated electrochemical oxidation to unlock non‐natural enzymatic oxidative desymmetrization, enabling the highly enantioselective synthesis of silicon stereocenters. Using symmetric silane dialdehydes as substrates, variants of benzaldehyde lyase from Pseudomonas fluorescens ( Pf BAL) together with ferrocene methanol (FcMeOH) as a redox mediator facilitate selective oxidation. This method features a broad substrate scope, producing a range of enantioenriched silicon‐containing carboxylic acids with excellent enantioselectivity (22 examples, up to >99.5% ee). Mechanistic investigations confirm substrate binding, explain the origin of enantioselectivity, and validate the mediated electron transfer pathway. This study expands the enzyme reactivity repertoire by merging electrochemical synthesis with biocatalysis, establishing an effective biocatalytic strategy for constructing silicon chirality.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Published
2026-04-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.3445735
Primary Topic
Origins and Evolution of Life
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Electrochemically Driven Enzymatic Oxidative Desymmetrization for the Enantioselective Construction of Silicon Stereocenter

S J Liu, Xiaoqiang Huang, Aokun Liu, Yan Zhang et al.
Angewandte Chemie
Origins and Evolution of Life
article

Electrochemically Driven Enzymatic Oxidative Desymmetrization for the Enantioselective Construction of Silicon Stereocenter

S J Liu, Xiaoqiang Huang, Aokun Liu, Yan Zhang, Jinhai Yu, Jiayu Wu, Fengming Shi, Qin Zhu, L J Yu, Beibei Zhao, Bin Chen
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chiral silicon‐stereogenic organosilanes are finding increasingly widespread applications in pharmaceutical science and biomedical materials. However, the enzymatic construction of silicon chiral centers remains underdeveloped. Here, we report the integration of thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)‐dependent radical biocatalysis and mediated electrochemical oxidation to unlock non‐natural enzymatic oxidative desymmetrization, enabling the highly enantioselective synthesis of silicon stereocenters. Using symmetric silane dialdehydes as substrates, variants of benzaldehyde lyase from Pseudomonas fluorescens ( Pf BAL) together with ferrocene methanol (FcMeOH) as a redox mediator facilitate selective oxidation. This method features a broad substrate scope, producing a range of enantioenriched silicon‐containing carboxylic acids with excellent enantioselectivity (22 examples, up to >99.5% ee). Mechanistic investigations confirm substrate binding, explain the origin of enantioselectivity, and validate the mediated electron transfer pathway. This study expands the enzyme reactivity repertoire by merging electrochemical synthesis with biocatalysis, establishing an effective biocatalytic strategy for constructing silicon chirality.

Angewandte Chemie
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Nanjing University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Origins and Evolution of Life
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