Applications and mechanisms of ionic liquids in whole-cell biotransformation

Ionic liquids (ILs), entirely composed of cations and anions, are liquid solvents at room temperature. They are interesting due to their low vapor pressure, high polarity and thermostability, and also for the possibility to fine-tune their physicochemical properties through modification of the chemi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of molecular sciences 2014-07, Vol.15 (7), p.12196-12216
Main Authors: Fan, Lin-Lin, Li, Hong-Ji, Chen, Qi-He
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria - drug effects
Bacteria - metabolism
Biodegradation, Environmental
Biofuels
Biotransformation
Catalysis
Cellular biology
Fungi - drug effects
Fungi - metabolism
Industrial Microbiology - methods
ionic liquids (ILs)
Ionic Liquids - chemistry
Ionic Liquids - pharmacology
mechanism
Organic chemicals
Review
whole-cell catalysis
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Summary:Ionic liquids (ILs), entirely composed of cations and anions, are liquid solvents at room temperature. They are interesting due to their low vapor pressure, high polarity and thermostability, and also for the possibility to fine-tune their physicochemical properties through modification of the chemical structures of their cations or anions. In recent years, ILs have been widely used in biotechnological fields involving whole-cell biotransformations of biodiesel or biomass, and organic compound synthesis with cells. Research studies in these fields have increased from the past decades and compared to the typical solvents, ILs are the most promising alternative solvents for cell biotransformations. However, there are increasing limitations and new challenges in whole-cell biotransformations with ILs. There is little understanding of the mechanisms of ILs' interactions with cells, and much remains to be clarified. Further investigations are required to overcome the drawbacks of their applications and to broaden their application spectrum. This work mainly reviews the applications of ILs in whole-cell biotransformations, and the possible mechanisms of ILs in microbial cell biotransformation are proposed and discussed.
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms150712196