Enzyme-Mediated Hydrolysis of Poly(ethylene glycol)-Supported Carbonates

1Introduction Enzymatic kinetic resolution of racemic alcohols or esters is known as a useful method for the preparation of optically active secondary alcohols. However, the work-up including the separation of the mixture of the remaining substrate and the resulting compound spend a lot of time and waste much amount of solvents. On the other hand, organic synthesis based on polymer supports has made rapid progress. Although the methodology is potentially useful for the easy separation of compounds obtained by the enzymatic reaction, there have been relatively few reports on enzymatic resolutions of using a polymer so far. We have noticed that using a watersoluble polymer could be suitable for enzymatic transformation. Here, we report the first example of an enzyme-mediated enantioselective hydrolysis of poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG)-supported substrates with a carbonate moiety to afford optically active compounds, and the method enables us to achieve the easy separation of the products[1]. See Scheme 1.