title: Assessing the toxicity and biodegradability of deep eutectic solvents.
abstract: Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as a new type of promising ionic solvents with a broad range of potential applications. Although their ecotoxicological profile is still poorly known, DESs are generally regarded as "green" because they are composed of ammonium salts and H-bond donors (HBDs) which are considered to be eco-friendly. In this work, cholinium-based DESs comprised of choline chloride (ChCl) and choline acetate (ChAc) as the salt and urea (U), acetamide (A), glycerol (G) and ethylene glycol (EG) as the HBD were evaluated for their toxic effects on different living organisms such as Escherichia coli (a bacterium), Allium sativum (garlic, a plant) and hydra (an invertebrate), and their biodegradabilities were assessed by means of closed bottle tests. These DESs possessed an anti-bacterial property and exhibited inhibitory effects on the test organisms adopted, depending on the composition and concentration of the DES. The mechanism for the impact of DESs and their components on different living organisms can be associated to their interactions with the cellular membranes. Not all DESs can be considered readily biodegradable. By extending the limited knowledge about the toxicity and biodegradation of this particular solvent family, this investigation on DESs provides insight into our structure-based understanding of their ecotoxicological behavior.
authors: College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresources and Ecology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong, China.
authors: Qing
authors: Q
authors: Wen
authors: College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresources and Ecology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong, China.
authors: Jing-Xin
authors: JX
authors: Chen
authors: College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong, China.
authors: Yu-Lin
authors: YL
authors: Tang
authors: College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong, China.
authors: Juan
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: zyang@szu.edu.cn.
authors: Zhen
authors: Z
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001419:Bacteria; D002794:Choline / Q000633:toxicity; D054750:Ecotoxicology / Q000379:methods*; D019855:Ethylene Glycol / Q000633:toxicity; D005990:Glycerol / Q000633:toxicity; D012997:Solvents / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity*; D014508:Urea / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D012997:Solvents; D014508:Urea; D019855:Ethylene Glycol; D002794:Choline; D005990:Glycerol
keywords: Anti-bacterial activity; Biodegradability; Deep eutectic solvents (DESs); Ionic liquids (ILs); Toxicity