Enzymatic esterification of β-methylglucoside with acrylic/ methacrylic acid in organic solvents

The enzymatic esterifications of β-methylglucoside with acrylic acid/methacrylic acid were carried out using Novozym 435. t-Butanol indicating the highest conversion value was determined as an optimal solvent. The molar ratio (β-methylglucoside:acids) of 1:15 was most favorable to the esterification. The enzyme concentration of 5% (w/v), and the temperature (50°C for β-methylglucoside:acrylic acid, 45°C for β-methylglucoside:methacrylic acid) resulted in the highest final conversion. β-Methylglucoside of 60 gl^-1 was found to be most effective in terms of short reaction time as well as product concentrations. Under these conditions, the maximum conversions for the esterification of β-methylglucoside with acrylic acid and β-methylglucoside with methacrylic acid were 59.3% after 12 h and 71.3% after 72 h, respectively. The structural analysis of the products was performed by FT-IR spectroscopy and ¹H NMR.