Recent Developments in Chemical Synthesis with Biocatalysts in Ionic Liquids

Abstract

Over the past decade, a variety of ionic liquids have emerged as greener solvents for use in the chemical manufacturing industries. Their unique properties have attracted the interest of chemists worldwide to employ them as replacement for conventional solvents in a diverse range of chemical transformations including biotransformations. Biocatalysts are often regarded as green catalysts compared to conventional chemical catalysts in organic synthesis owing to their properties of low toxicity, biodegradability, excellent selectivity and good catalytic performance under mild reaction conditions. Similarly, a selected number of specific ionic liquids can be considered as greener solvents superior to organic solvents owing to their negligible vapor pressure, low flammability, low toxicity and ability to dissolve a wide range of organic and biological substances, including proteins. A combination of biocatalysts and ionic liquids thus appears to be a logical and promising opportunity for industrial use as an alternative to conventional organic chemistry processes employing organic solvents. This article provides an overview of recent developments in this field with special emphasis on the application of more sustainable enzyme-catalyzed reactions and separation processes employing ionic liquids, driven by advances in fundamental knowledge, process optimization and industrial deployment.

Design of Heterogeneous Hoveyda–Grubbs Second-Generation Catalyst–Lipase Conjugates

“…Table 6. Immobilized lipase-Hoveyda-Grubbs second-generation catalyst conjugates in aqueous metathesis reaction of 1 1 .…”

“…Chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes represent the best environmentally friendly scenario in organic chemistry [1][2][3].…”

Evaluating Self-buffering Ionic Liquids for Biotechnological Applications

“…3 The interest in biotechnological applications of ILs is growing not only for enzyme catalysis [4][5][6][7][8] but also for bioseparation process. [9][10] Their potential as media for biocatalytic reactions with remarkable yields 11 has been demonstrated, in addition to their enantioselectivity 12 and enzyme stability.…”

Application of Deep Eutectic Solvents in Promiscuous Lipase‐Catalysed Aldol Reactions

“…10 More closely to organic synthetic applications, DES have efficiently catalysed multiple traditional organic 11 and organometallic reactions, 12 but the application in biocatalysed transformations is still rare. 13 Until now, the activities of hydrolases, 14 oxidoreductases 15 and lyases 16 have been already demonstrated in high-yielding transformations using DES as medium. DES have been also able to run tandem enzyme-organocatalyst aldol reactions, 17 and as far as we know only Shukla and coworkers have reported their use as reaction media in a strictly enzyme promiscuous catalytic process such as the Biginelli reaction for the synthesis of novel dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones derivatives.…”