title: Direct enzymatic acylation of cellulose pretreated in BMIMCl ionic liquid.
abstract: Cellulose esters are an important class of functional biopolymers with great interest in the chemical industry. In this work the enzymatic acylation of Avicel cellulose with vinyl propionate, vinyl laurate and vinyl stearate, has been performed successfully in a solvent free reaction system. At first cellulose was putted into the ionic liquid BMIMCl (1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) in order to facilitate the unwrap of the structure of the polysaccharide molecule and make it accessible to the enzyme. Thus, after this pretreatment the enzymatic esterification reaction was performed using various hydrolases. The enzymes capable of catalyzing the acylation of cellulose were found to be the immobilized esterase from hog liver and the immobilized cutinase from Fusarium solani, while the lipases used did not show any catalytic activity. Cellulose esters of propionate, laurate and stearate were synthesized with a degree of esterification of 1.9%, 1.3% and 1.0%, respectively. It is the first successful direct enzymatic acylation of cellulose with long chain fatty acids.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gremos
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zarafeta
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kekos
authors.forename: Fragiskos
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kolisis
mesh_terms: D000215:Acylation / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D055162:Biocatalysis / Q000187:drug effects; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D002482:Cellulose / Q000378:metabolism*; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004950:Esterases / Q000378:metabolism; D004952:Esters / Q000378:metabolism; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000494:pharmacology*; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008049:Lipase / Q000378:metabolism; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes; D004952:Esters; D007093:Imidazoles; D052578:Ionic Liquids; C502841:1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride; D002482:Cellulose; D004950:Esterases; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases; C019952:cutinase; D008049:Lipase