Optical resolution of n-butyl d- and l-lactates using immobilized lipase catalyst

Abstract n -Butyl d- and l -lactates (BuDLa and BuLLa) were incubated with immobilized lipase. 1 H-NMR showed that BuDLa reacted to oligomers, while BuLLa did not react. A mixture containing 90.4% of BuLLa and 9.6% of BuDLa was incubated with the enzyme for 72 h, then distilled. The purity of BuLLa increased to 98.6%.