Influence of water activity on the enantioselective esterification of (R,S)‐ibuprofen by crosslinked crystals of Candida antarctica lipase B in organic solvent media

The lipase B from Candida antarctica was purified from a commercial source and crystallized. The microcrystals were crosslinked using glutaraldehyde. The crosslinked crystals were then used to catalyze the esterification of (R,S)-ibuprofen with dodecanol in octane at various water activities. As for the commercial preparation immobilized on acrylic resin, Novozym 435, low water activities foster better enantioselectivity, and the maximum reaction rates are obtained for a(W) = 0.1.