IN SEARCH OF THE PLASTIC ENZYME

Photozymes are novel polyelectrolytes made from mixtures of hydrophobi c and hydrophilic comonomers. They often contain a relatively high con centration of bound chromophores as photon harvesting or antenna group s, which transport excitation energy to organic substrates located in the interior of the macromolecular coil in aqueous solution. Previous studies have shown that the photocatalytic behavior of these polymers has many similarities to natural enzymes which carry out thermal react ions in biological systems. Mechanistic studies of four photozyme reac tions are discussed: (1) the oxidation of perylene to perylenequinones ; (2) the dehalogenation of hexachloro- and pentachlorobenzene; (3) th e high-yield synthesis of Vitamin D; and (4) the selective photolysis of aliphatic and aromatic ketones.