Vicinal halohydrins are key building blocks to produce bioactive molecules and drugs, especially if they can be obtained in enantiomerically pure form. In this study, we present a bi-enzymatic sequence that allows to obtain vic-halohydrins through a photochemoenzymatic olefin hydroxy halogenation followed by a lipase catalysed kinetic resolution. The absolute configuration of the resulting products was determined using Mosher's method.@en

A photochemoenzymatic halodecarboxylation of ferulic acid was achieved using vanadate-dependent chloroperoxidase as (bio)catalyst and oxygen and organic solvent as sole stoichiometric reagents in a biphasic system. Performance and selectivity were improved through a phase transfer catalyst, reaching a turnover number of 660.000 for the enzyme.

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