Abstract
Whole-cell biocatalysis has a number of advantages for efficient chemical syntheses in light of modern principles of sustainable (“green”) chemistry and engineering. However, issues of substrate delivery, substrate/product inhibition or toxicity, and especially ultimate separation are often major challenges. The use of ionic liquids (ILs) in biphasic systems may overcome many of these issues. Ionic liquids are molecularly flexible through different cations and anions combinations and allow fine-tuning of the physical properties especially substrate/product partitioning and biocompatibility. This contribution will review the various whole-cell biotransformations to date, of which the majority are ketone reductions in biphasic IL/aqueous systems. The connection of the ionic liquid structure to biocompatible and biocatalysis from these studies is often difficult to quantify, especially as the earliest studies often used the [PF6] and [BF4] which are now known to degrade to toxic by-products. The use of water-soluble ionic liquids was also investigated as potential cosolvents with some success. Toxicological studies on fermentation organisms also aid in the development and understanding of the resulting processes. Overall, there are still a number of issues that need to be addressed for broader application of ionic liquids for whole-cell biocatalysis. Due to the sheer number of potential ionic liquids, optimal processes are highly probable aided by understanding the biochemistry, phase equilibrium, and toxicology. In addition, the development of ionic liquid-tolerant microorganisms may also be a future research area.
Call for Papers in Thematic Issues
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