Comparative behavior of various lipases in benign water and ionic liquids solvents

Lipases were shown to catalyze acylation of various sulfonamides using water or ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents. Ionic liquids that were used include [bmim][PF6], [bmim][N(Tf)2], and [bmim][BF4] (where bmim = 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium, PF6 = hexafluorophosphate, N(Tf)2 = bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, and BF4 = tetrafluoroborate). As a function of the lipase nature the ionic liquid can be or not a suitable solvent for this reaction. Therefore, it may be stated that an optimization of the process implies a molar ratio of 1:3, the use of lipase PS Amano as catalyst and the use of [bmim][N(Tf)2] ionic liquid as solvent. A comparison of the systems shows that the reactivity of the enzyme in [bmim][N(Tf)2] ionic liquid was generally lower than in water but the selectivity to monoacylated sulfonamide was always 100%.

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