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Projeto de investigação
Exploiting the Potential of Surface Active Ionic Liquids: Fluorinated Ionic Liquids Meet Biomolecules
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Understanding the Absorption of Fluorinated Gases in Fluorinated Ionic Liquids for Recovering Purposes Using Soft-SAFT
Publication . Ferreira, Margarida L.; Araújo, João M. M.; Vega, Lourdes F.; Pereiro, Ana B.; LAQV@REQUIMTE; DQ - Departamento de Química; ACS - American Chemical Society
It is proven that fluorinated gases (F-gases) have a vast impact on climate change due to their high global warming potential. Hence, it is imperative to search for new molecules to replace them in current applications, as well as technologies to capture, recover, and recycle F-gases to avoid their emissions to the atmosphere. One of the attractive technologies for this purpose is to absorb them in fluorinated ionic liquids (FILs), given their solubilization power. However, the complexity of FILs and the time-consuming experimental methodologies to fully characterize them hinder their prompt usage in this urgent field. In this work, the soft-Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (soft-SAFT) Equation of State is used as a tool to investigate the solubility of six different F-gases (R-32, R-125, R-134a, R-14, R-116, R-218) in five FILs ([C2C1Im][C4F9SO3], [C2C1Im][C4F9CO2], [C2C1py][C4F9SO3], [C2(C6F13)C1Im][N(CF3SO2)2], and [C2(C6F13)C1Im][N(C2F5SO2)2]). The robustness of the soft-SAFT approach allowed the establishment of new FIL models in a simple and fast way, and the calculation of F-gases solubility in them, in excellent agreement with existing experimental data. Once the models were assessed, a systematic study was performed regarding the structural features of FILs favoring their performance to absorb F-gases by using the soft-SAFT approach as a screening tool. It has been obtained that the solubility is favored by the presence of a perfluoroalkyl chain in the imidazolium cation, together with a bulkier anion. In all cases, [C2(C6F13)C1Im][N(C2F5SO2)2] shows a superior solubility of F-gases than the [C2(C6F13)C1Im][N(CF3SO2)2], also indicating that the addition of one carbon to the two anionic symmetric fluorinated chains contributes to the gas-philicity of the FILs. This work proves the relevance of using the soft-SAFT framework to obtain insights into the behavior of such complex systems and key trends, even when experimental data are scarce, as a step forward in assessing systems for separating and recovering F-gases.
Unveiling the Influence of Non-Toxic Fluorinated Ionic Liquids Aqueous Solutions in the Encapsulation and Stability of Lysozyme
Publication . Ferreira, Margarida L.; Vieira, Nicole S. M.; Araújo, João M. M.; Pereiro, Ana B.; DQ - Departamento de Química; LAQV@REQUIMTE; Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB)
Proteins are bioactive compounds with high potential to be applied in the biopharmaceutical industry, food science and as biocatalysts. However, protein stability is very difficult to maintain outside of the native environment, which hinders their applications. Fluorinated ionic liquids (FILs) are a promising family of surface-active ionic liquids (SAILs) that have an amphiphilic behavior and the ability to self-aggregate in aqueous solutions by the formation of colloidal systems. In this work, the protein lysozyme was selected to infer on the influence of FILs in its stability and activity. Then, the cytotoxicity of FILs was determined to evaluate their biocompatibility, concluding that the selected compounds have neglected cytotoxicity. Therefore, UV–visible spectroscopy was used to infer the FIL-lysozyme interactions, concluding that the predominant interaction is the encapsulation of the lysozyme by FILs. The encapsulation efficiency was also tested, which highly depends on the concentration and anion of FIL. Finally, the bioactivity and thermal stability of lysozyme were evaluated, and the encapsulated lysozyme keeps its activity and thermal stability, concluding that FILs can be a potential stabilizer to be used in protein-based delivery systems.
Exploiting the Potential of Surface Active Ionic Liquids: Fluorinated Ionic Liquids meet Biomolecules
Publication . Ferreira, Margarida Lourenço; Estévez, Ana; Araújo, João; Vega Fernández, Lourdes
Proteins are macromolecules constituting all the living organisms, being classified as
versatile biopolymers, with the widest biological activities. Thus, they have a high impact in
different fields, such as the biochemical, biotechnological, chemical, pharmaceutical, and food
industries. However, their industrial applications depend on costly downstream processes to
yield proteins with high purity, stability, and activity. Moreover, the biological activity of
proteins depends on the preservation of the three-dimensional structure, which is determined
by the delicate balance between their interactions with compounds in the surrounding
environment. To surpass these challenges, ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged in the biological
field as an improved asset due to the possibility to design task-specificity materials by
selecting the anions and cations composing their structure, and fine-tuning their properties.
The surface-active ionic liquids (SAILs) are a highly recognized family of ILs with improved
surfactant behaviour. SAILs can be used in the stabilization, extraction, separation,
crystallization, and development of protein delivery systems. However, there is still a great
lack of knowledge about the interactions between SAILs and proteins, essential information
to guide the selection of the best compounds for these bottom-line applications.
In this doctoral thesis, fluorinated ionic liquids (FILs), an enhanced family of SAILs,
were used to study the interactions between IL-proteins with the aim to develop FIL-based
systems for the separation, extraction, and proteins delivery systems. To begin, a review of the
literature was performed to understand FILs properties. These compounds grant augmented
solubilization mechanisms due to the rich self-aggregation behaviour and can be designed to
be completely miscible in aqueous solutions with negligible toxicity, which aids their
performance in the biological field. Furthermore, the soft-Statistical Associating Fluid Theory
Equation of State (soft-SAFT EoS) was used to model FILs in an intuitive, robust, and reliable
way. A straightforward methodology was implemented using soft-SAFT EoS to compute the
thermophysical properties of FILs and their mixtures with various solutes. In addition, it was
investigated the influence of the structural features of FILs in their self-aggregation behaviour
in aqueous solutions. In the end, the impact of the FILs on the solubility, stability, and
interaction with different proteins was evaluated. The results of this thesis comprise a proof
of concept of the feasibility of FILs-based systems for biological, biochemical, and
pharmaceutical applications.
Fluorinated Ionic Liquids as Task-Specific Materials
Publication . Vieira, Nicole S. M.; Ferreira, Margarida L.; Castro, Paulo Jorge Gomes; Araújo, João M. M.; Pereiro, Ana B.; LAQV@REQUIMTE; DQ - Departamento de Química
This chapter is focused on the massive potential and increasing interest on Fluorinated Ionic Liquids (FILs) as task-specific materials. FILs are a specific family of ionic liquids, with fluorine tags equal or longer than four carbon atoms, that share and improve the properties of both traditional ionic liquids and perfluoro surfactants. These compounds have unique properties such as three nanosegregated domains, a great surfactant power, chemical/biological inertness, easy recovery and recyclability, low surface tension, extreme surface activity, high gas solubility, negligible vapour pressure, null flammability, and high thermal stability. These properties allied to the countless possible combinations between cations and anions allow the design and development of FILs with remarkable properties to be used in specific applications. In this review, we highlight not only the unique thermophysical, surfactant and toxicological properties of these fluorinated compounds, but also their application as task-specific materials in many fields of interest, including biomedical applications, as artificial gas carries and drug delivery systems, as well as solvents for separations in engineering processes.
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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
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SFRH/BD/130965/2017