Robust Enzymatic Resolution of 3-Fluoromandelic Acid with Lipase PS Supported on Celite

The resolution of different mandelic acids using the lipase PS “Amano” SD enzyme is described. By supporting the lyophilized enzyme over Celite, both the activity and the stability of lipase PS in organic media were significantly improved, enabling the robust resolution scale-up of 3-fluoromandelic acid. The methodology was extended to produce a range of optically pure (R)-mandelic acids, avoiding tedious extractions or chromatography.