Recent advances of enzymatic reactions in ionic liquids

Separation and characterization of cellulose fibers from cypress wood treated with ionic liquid prior to laccase treatment

Separation of cellulose fibers (CFs) from woody biomass with minimal structural alteration using a "green" and efficient method was achieved by treatment with the ionic liquid (IL), [emim][OAc] (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate) at 80 °C for 1h. The IL was recovered by rinsing with water-acetone mixture prior to treatment of the wood with Trametes sp. laccase in the presence of 1-hydroxybenzotriazole as a mediator. IL pretreatment did not significantly change the chemical composition of the wood, but did alter its structure and rendered its surface more accessible to the enzyme. Treated and untreated samples were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, and chemical methods. The cellulose content of the produced fibers was approximately 73.1% and the lignin content was 9.8%, much lower than the lignin content of 29.3% of the untreated wood. The cellulose fibers exhibited higher cellulose crystallinity and better thermal stability compared to untreated wood materials.

High activity preparations of lipases and proteases for catalysis in low water containing organic solvents and ionic liquids

Simple precipitation of enzymes has shown impressive catalytic efficiencies in organic solvents. In asmuch as these can be recovered after the reaction, these can be viewed as immobilized preparations just like more extensively used cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs). This chapter describes three protocols which use these enzyme precipitated and rinsed with propanol/some other appropriate organic solvent. The first two protocols show their applications in ionic liquids for a transesterification reaction and a kinetic resolution. The third protocol presumably incorporates an "imprinting" effect so that the precipitates are now able to efficiently catalyze transesterification of tributyrin with tertiary alcohols.

Protic ionic liquid as additive on lipase immobilization using silica sol-gel

Ionic liquids (ILs) have evolved as a new type of non-aqueous solvents for biocatalysis, mainly due to their unique and tunable physical properties. A number of recent review papers have described a variety of enzymatic reactions conducted in IL solutions, on the other hand, to improve the enzyme's activity and stability in ILs; major methods being explored include the enzyme immobilization (on solid support, sol-gel, etc.), protic ionic liquids used as an additive process. The immobilization of the lipase from Burkholderia cepacia by the sol-gel technique using protic ionic liquids (PIL) as additives to protect against inactivation of the lipase due to release of alcohol and shrinkage of the gel during the sol-gel process was investigated in this study. The influence of various factors such as the length of the alkyl chain of protic ionic liquids (monoethanolamine-based) and a concentration range between 0.5 and 3.0% (w/v) were evaluated. The resulting hydrophobic matrices and immobilized lipases were characterised with regard to specific surface area, adsorption-desorption isotherms, pore volume (V(p)) and size (d(p)) according to nitrogen adsorption and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), physico-chemical properties (thermogravimetric - TG, differential scanning calorimetry - DSC and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy - FTIR) and the potential for ethyl ester and emulsifier production. The total activity yields (Y(a)) for matrices of immobilized lipase employing protic ionic liquids as additives always resulted in higher values compared with the sample absent the protic ionic liquids, which represents 35-fold increase in recovery of enzymatic activity using the more hydrophobic protic ionic liquids. Compared with arrays of the immobilized biocatalyst without additive, in general, the immobilized biocatalyst in the presence of protic ionic liquids showed increased values of surface area (143-245 m(2) g(-1)) and pore size (19-38 Å). Immobilization with protic ionic liquids also favoured reduced mass loss according to TG curves (always less than 42.9%) when compared to the immobilized matrix without protic ionic liquids (45.1%), except for the sample containing 3.0% protic ionic liquids (46.5%), verified by thermogravimetric analysis. Ionic liquids containing a more hydrophobic alkyl group in the cationic moiety were beneficial for recovery of the activity of the immobilized lipase. The physico-chemical characterization confirmed the presence of the enzyme and its immobilized derivatives obtained in this study by identifying the presence of amino groups, and profiling enthalpy changes of mass loss.

Effects of structure dissymmetry on aggregation behaviors of quaternary ammonium Gemini surfactants in a protic ionic liquid EAN

The aggregation behaviors of a series of dissymmetric cationic Gemini surfactants, [C(m)H(2m+1)(CH(3))(2)N(CH(2))(2)N(CH(3))(2)C(n)H(2n+1)]Br(2), designated as m-2-n (with a fixed m + n = 24, m = 16, 14, 12) have been investigated in a protic ionic liquid, ethylammonium nitrate (EAN). Surface tension, polarized optical microscopy (POM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and rheological measurements are adopted to investigate the micellization and lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) formation. The obtained results indicate that the structure dissymmetry plays an important role in aggregation process of m-2-n. With increasing degree of dissymmetry, the critical micellization concentration, the maximum reduction of solvent surface tension, and the minimum area occupied per surfactant molecule at the air/EAN interface all become smaller. The thermostability of formed LLCs is therefore improved because of the more compact molecules. These characteristics can be explained by the enhancement of solvophobic effect due to the increased structure dissymmetry of Gemini surfactants.

Efficient anti-Prelog enantioselective reduction of acetyltrimethylsilane to (R)-1-trimethylsilylethanol by immobilized Candida parapsilosis CCTCC M203011 cells in ionic liquid-based biphasic systems

BACKGROUND

Biocatalytic asymmetric reductions with whole cells can offer high enantioselectivity, environmentally benign processes and energy-effective operations and thus are of great interest. The application of whole cell-mediated bioreduction is often restricted if substrate and product have low water solubility and/or high toxicity to the biocatalyst. Many studies have shown that a biphasic system is often useful in this instance. Hence, we developed efficient biphasic reaction systems with biocompatible water-immiscible ionic liquids (ILs), to improve the biocatalytic anti-Prelog enantioselective reduction of acetyltrimethylsilane (ATMS) to (R)-1-trimethylsilylethanol {(R)-1-TMSE}, which is key synthon for a large number of silicon-containing drugs, using immobilized Candida parapsilosis CCTCC M203011 cells as the biocatalyst.

RESULTS

It was found that the substrate ATMS and the product 1-TMSE exerted pronounced toxicity to immobilized Candida parapsilosis CCTCC M203011 cells. The biocompatible water-immiscible ILs can be applied as a substrate reservoir and in situ extractant for the product, thus greatly enhancing the efficiency of the biocatalytic process and the operational stability of the cells as compared to the IL-free aqueous system. Various ILs exerted significant but different effects on the bioreduction and the performances of biocatalysts were closely related to the kinds and combination of cation and anion of ILs. Among all the water-immiscible ILs investigated, the best results were observed in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (C(4)mim·PF(6))/buffer biphasic system. Furthermore, it was shown that the optimum substrate concentration, volume ratio of buffer to IL, buffer pH, reaction temperature and shaking rate for the bioreduction were 120 mM, 8/1 (v/v), 6.0, 30°C and 180 r/min, respectively. Under these optimized conditions, the initial reaction rate, the maximum yield and the product e.e. were 8.1 μmol/min g(cwm), 98.6% and >99%, respectively. The efficient whole-cell biocatalytic process was shown to be feasible on a 450-mL scale. Moreover, the immobilized cells remained around 87% of their initial activity even after being used repeatedly for 8 batches in the C(4)mim·PF(6)/buffer biphasic system, exhibiting excellent operational stability.

CONCLUSIONS

For the first time, we have successfully utilized immobilized Candida parapsilosis CCTCC M203011 cells, for efficiently catalyzing anti-Prelog enantioselective reduction of ATMS to enantiopure (R)-1-TMSE in the C(4)mim·PF(6)/buffer biphasic system. The substantially improved biocatalytic process appears to be effective and competitive on a preparative scale.

Structure and dynamics of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate phases on silica and laponite clay: from liquid to solid behavior

Solid-state NMR experiments show that the behavior of supported 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquid phases depends on the type of support and the phase thickness. A mobile nearly liquid phase is obtained on silica, on the basis of the line widths of the bands in (1)H, (31)P, and (13)C spectra. However, the mobility is somehow restricted, as shown by the possibility of using the cross-polarization technique, although with slow dynamics. On laponite clay, a layered material with a negatively charged surface, a truly solid phase is obtained at low coverage, whereas the increase in ionic liquid loading leads to a second liquid phase, as shown by the presence of two contributions with very different line widths. These two phases seem to coexist without exchange in the NMR time frame. Heteronuclear correlation experiments evidence different relative dispositions of the imidazolium-surface-PF(6) system, with only aromatic protons involved in all the interactions on silica but participation of the benzylic groups (N-CH(3) and/or N-CH(2)) in the case of laponite clay.

Chitosan as a renewable heterogeneous catalyst for the knoevenagel reaction in ionic liquid as green solvent

The combination of chitosan as a renewable heterogeneous catalyst and ionic liquid as a "green" solvent was employed for the Knoevenagel reaction. The chitosan catalyst was characterized by various techniques, including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and elemental analysis. Excellent conversions were achieved under mild conditions without the need for an inert atmosphere. There was no contribution from leached active species, and conversion was only being possible in the presence of the solid catalyst. The chitosan catalyst as well as the ionic liquid solvent could be recovered in essentially pure form after being used in the reaction, and each of them could be reused several times without a significant degradation in efficiency.

The catalytic activity enhancement and biodegradation potential of free laccase and novel sol-gel laccase in non-conventional solvents

The catalytic activity of free laccase and a novel sol-gel laccase (SOLAC) in ionic liquids and organic solvents was demonstrated by using 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (2,6-DMP) as a substrate. The enhancement of the catalytic activity of the SOLAC was observed and compared to the free laccase in both media. The oxidative biodegradation of o-chlorophenol as a model of phenolic environmental pollutants in organic media shows that the degradation was observed only when using water pre-saturated organic solvents or reverse micelle system. The SOLAC gave higher biodegradation rate in either aqueous or organic solvents, in which the optimum temperature was observed at 40 °C for the reverse micelle system as a reaction medium. All results demonstrated the potential use of the SOLAC for biodegradation of phenolic environmental pollutants in non-conventional media.

Automated high-throughput Vibrio fischeri assay for (eco)toxicity screening: application to ionic liquids

An automated high-throughput Vibrio fischeri assay was developed and further applied to the evaluation of ionic liquids (ILs) (eco)toxicity. The assay was based on the reduction of bacterial bioluminescence in the presence of test compounds and the results were presented as EC(50). The assays were performed with eight commercially available ILs with distinct cationic head groups, alkyl side chains and anions. EC(50) values between 6.5 and 691.9 mmol L(-1) were obtained for the tested ILs, being hmim [Cl] the most toxic and bmim [Cl] the less toxic ones, confirming the influence of the different structural elements. Moreover, all the tested ILs exhibited a (eco)toxicity lower than Cu(II), used as a positive control during the optimization and analysis steps. The automated assay assured the precise control of the contact time between V. fischeri and test compound by means of a simple protocol that guaranteed adequate aspiration and handling of the solutions as well as the precise implementation of a computer controlled stop period. Furthermore, a significant reduction of the assay costs was achieved through automation mainly by a drastic reduction of the volume of bacterial suspension and test compound. The methodology was validated by comparison with a microplate assay; it was stated that the results, obtained after a 3min contact time, changed proportionally relatively to Cu(II) in both assays. This confirmed the applicability of the methodology as an (eco)toxicity screening assay, with reduction of time and increase of robustness and repeatability (n=10; rsd<1.1%). It is expected that due to its simplicity and reduced cost the developed assay can be integrated in the early stage of development of new compounds as a rapid screening test.

Efficient asymmetric reduction of 4-(trimethylsilyl)-3-butyn-2-one by Candida parapsilosis cells in an ionic liquid-containing system

Hydrophilic ionic liquids (ILs) were employed as green solvents to construct an IL-containing co-solvent system for improving the asymmetric reduction of 4-(trimethylsilyl)-3-butyn-2-one by immobilized Candida parapsilosis cells. Among 14 hydrophilic ILs examined, 1-(2'-hydroxyl)ethyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate (C(2)OHMIM·NO(3)) was considered as the most suitable IL for the bioreduction with the fastest initial reaction rate, the highest yield and the highest product e.e., which may be due to the good biocompatibility with the cells. For a better understanding of the bioreduction performed in the C(2)OHMIM·NO(3)-containing co-solvent system, the effects of several crucial variables were systematically investigated. The optimal C(2)OHMIM·NO(3) content, substrate concentration, buffer pH, co-substrate concentration and temperature were 10% (v/v), 3.0 mmol/L, 5.0, 98.1 mmol/L and 30°C, respectively. Under the optimal conditions, the initial reaction rate, the maximum yield and the product e.e. were 17.3 µmol/h g(cell), 95.2% and >99.9%, respectively, which are much better than the corresponding results previously reported. Moreover, the immobilized cells remained more than 83% of their initial activity even after being used repeatedly for 10 batches in the C(2)OHMIM·NO(3)-containing system, exhibiting excellent operational stability.

Ether- and alcohol-functionalized task-specific ionic liquids: attractive properties and applications

In recent years, the designer nature of ionic liquids (ILs) has driven their exploration and exploitation in countless fields among the physical and chemical sciences. A fair measure of the tremendous attention placed on these fluids has been attributed to their inherent designer nature. And yet, there are relatively few examples of reviews that emphasize this vital aspect in an exhaustive or meaningful way. In this critical review, we systematically survey the physicochemical properties of the collective library of ether- and alcohol-functionalized ILs, highlighting the impact of ionic structure on features such as viscosity, phase behavior/transitions, density, thermostability, electrochemical properties, and polarity (e.g. hydrophilicity, hydrogen bonding capability). In the latter portions of this review, we emphasize the attractive applications of these functionalized ILs across a range of disciplines, including their use as electrolytes or functional fluids for electrochemistry, extractions, biphasic systems, gas separations, carbon capture, carbohydrate dissolution (particularly, the (ligno)celluloses), polymer chemistry, antimicrobial and antielectrostatic agents, organic synthesis, biomolecular stabilization and activation, and nanoscience. Finally, this review discusses anion-functionalized ILs, including sulfur- and oxygen-functionalized analogs, as well as choline-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs), an emerging class of fluids which can be sensibly categorized as semi-molecular cousins to the IL. Finally, the toxicity and biodegradability of ether- and alcohol-functionalized ILs are discussed and cautiously evaluated in light of recent reports. By carefully summarizing literature examples on the properties and applications of oxy-functional designer ILs up till now, it is our intent that this review offers a barometer for gauging future advances in the field as well as a trigger to spur further contemplation of these seemingly inexhaustible and--relative to their potential--virtually untouched fluids. It is abundantly clear that these remarkable fluidic materials are here to stay, just as certain design rules are slowly beginning to emerge. However, in fairness, serendipity also still plays an undeniable role, highlighting the need for both expanded in silico studies and a beacon to attract bright, young researchers to the field (406 references).

Nonaqueous lyotropic liquid-crystalline phases formed by gemini surfactants in a protic ionic liquid

The aggregation behaviors of three Gemini surfactants [(C(s)H(2s)-α,ω-(Me(2)N(+)C(m)H(2m+1)Br(-))(2), s = 2, m = 10, 12, 14] in a protic ionic liquid, ethylammonium nitrate (EAN), have been investigated. The polarized optical microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements are used to explore the lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) formation. Compared to the LLCs formed in aqueous environment, the normal hexagonal and lamellar phases disappear. However, with increasing the surfactant concentration, a new reverse hexagonal phase (H(II)) can be mapped over a large temperature range except for other ordered aggregates including the isotropic solution phase and a two-phase coexistence region. The structural parameters of the H(II) are calculated from the corresponding SAXS patterns, showing the influence of surfactant amount, alkyl chain length, and temperature. Meanwhile, the rheological profiles indicate a typical Maxwell behavior of the LLC phases formed in EAN.

Activation of lignocellulosic biomass by ionic liquid for biorefinery fractionation

Fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass is an attractive solution to develop an economically viable biorefinery by providing a saccharide fraction to produce fuels and a lignin stream that can be converted into high value products such as carbon fibers. In this study, the analysis of ionic liquid-activated biomass demonstrates that in addition of decreasing crystallinity, the selected ILs (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate) deacetylate Yellow poplar under mild conditions (dissolution at 60-80 °C), and lower the degradation temperature of each biomass polymeric component, thereby reducing the recalcitrance of biomass. Among the three tested ILs, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate performed the best, providing a strong linear relationship between the level of deacetylation and the rate of enzymatic saccharification for Yellow poplar.

Identification of suitable ionic liquids for application in the enzymatic hydrolysis of rutin by an automated screening

An automated method in milliliter scale was developed for the screening of process parameters concerning the hydrolysis of the flavonoid rutin catalyzed by the rhamnosidase activity of naringinase from Penicillium decumbens. Besides the effect of additives such as ionic liquids and low molecular salts, the productivity in a multiple phase system as well as the recyclability of the enzyme in repetitive batches were studied. The hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bis(trifluormethylsulfonyl)imide [P(h(3))t][Tf(2)N] was identified to combine the most favorable characteristics out of 23 investigated ILs with regard to enzyme compatibility, substrate solubility and enzyme partition coefficient. Also, for the corresponding cations 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium [EMIM], 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium [BMIM], 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium [BMPL] and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium [OMIM], the entity with the [Tf(2)N] anion was best tolerated by the naringinase. With increasing IL content, higher space time yields with up to 1.5 g/(L h) for 80% (v/v) [P(h(3))t][Tf(2)N] were achieved. Enhanced specific enzyme activity was observed in the presence of Ca(2+) ions. By addition of [P(h(3))t][Tf(2)N] and calcium chloride, the reactive aqueous phase was successfully used in three repetitive batches with full conversion.

Effect of hydrophilicity of room temperature ionic liquids on the electrochemical and electrocatalytic behaviour of choline oxidase

In the present report, six different nano-composites contaning the same amine functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (NH(2)-MWCNTs) but different room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) were prepared. Then, the efficiency of these nano-composites as supporting materials for studying the electrochemistry and electrocatalysis of choline oxidase (ChOx) as a model enzyme were compared. The corresponding cyclic voltammetric and amperometric data showed that the electrocatalytic activity and the electroanalytical performance of immobilized ChOx depends on the degree of hydrophilicity of RTILs used in the applied nano-composite. The higher stability (180 days), higher enzyme loading (6.56 mol cm(-2)), lower detection limit (3.85 μM) and wider linear range (0.005-0.8 mM) was obtained for the most hydrophilic RTIL (1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide).