Environmental control of nucleophilic catalysis in water.
The nucleophilic catalysis by a pyridyl group in ester/phosphate ester hydrolysis was modulated by the microenvironmental hydrophobicity around the catalyst. The catalytic efficiency was enhanced thousands or tens of thousands of times and the activity was maintained well below the pKa of the pyridyl group.
Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-3111, USA. zhaoy@iastate.edu.
Geetika
G
Chadha
Yan
Y
Zhao