Processes employed in separations of products of enzyme reactions are often driven by diffusion, and their efficiency can be limited. Here, we exploit the effect of a direct current (DC) electric field that intensifies mass transfer through a semipermeable membrane for fast, continuous, and selective separation of electrically charged molecules. Specifically, we separate low‐molecular‐weight reaction products (phenylacetic acid, 6‐aminopenicillanic acid) from the original reaction mixture containing a free enzyme (penicillin acylase). The developed microfluidic dialysis‐membrane contactor allows a stable counter‐current arrangement of the retentate and permeates liquid streams on which DC electric field is perpendicularly applied. The applied electric field significantly accelerates the transport of electrically charged products through the semipermeable membrane yielding high separation efficiencies at short residence times. The residence time of 5 min is sufficient to reach 100% separation yield in the electric field. The same residence time provides only a 50% yield in the diffusion‐controlled experiments. We experimentally demonstrated that a combined microreactor–microextractor with a recycle of the soluble penicillin acylase can continuously produce both the reaction products at high concentrations. The developed membrane‐contactor is a versatile platform allowing to tune its characteristics, such as selectivity given by the membrane, or the type of the retentate phase, for a specific application.

中文翻译：

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膜微接触器中酶促反应产物的电场增强选择性分离

用于分离酶反应产物的过程通常是由扩散驱动的，它们的效率可能会受到限制。在这里，我们利用直流 (DC) 电场的效应，通过半透膜加强传质，以快速、连续和选择性地分离带电分子。具体来说，我们从含有游离酶（青霉素酰基转移酶）的原始反应混合物中分离出低分子量反应产物（苯乙酸、6-氨基青霉酸）。开发的微流体透析膜接触器允许滞留物的稳定逆流排列，并渗透垂直施加直流电场的液体流。施加的电场显着加速带电产物通过半透膜的传输，从而在较短的停留时间内产生高分离效率。5 分钟的停留时间足以在电场中达到 100% 的分离产率。在扩散控制实验中，相同的停留时间仅提供 50% 的产率。我们通过实验证明，具有可溶性青霉素酰基转移酶循环的组合微反应器-微萃取器可以连续产生高浓度的两种反应产物。开发的膜接触器是一个多功能平台，可以针对特定应用调整其特性，例如膜提供的选择性或滞留相的类型。