Enhanced lipase-catalyzed synthesis of sugar fatty acid esters using supersaturated sugar solution in ionic liquids

A solvent-mediated method (SMM) was used to prepare supersaturated sugar solutions in hydrophobic and mixture of hydrophilic/hydrophobic ionic liquids (ILs), namely, [Bmim][Tf₂N] and [Bmim][TfO]/[Bmim][Tf₂N], respectively. In this method, sugars were first solubilized in a mixture of organic solvent and water (i.e. methanol:water, 1:1 v/v), and then added to [Bmim][Tf₂N] and/or [Bmim][TfO]/[Bmim][Tf₂N] mixture. Supersaturated sugar solution in ILs were obtained by removing organic solvents and water under vacuum evaporation. Sugar solubilities in ILs, especially in hydrophobic IL ([Bmim][Tf₂N]) and in [Bmim][TfO]/[Bmim][Tf₂N] mixture prepared by SMM were greater than in ILs prepared using water-mediated method (WMM), which suggested methanol aided sugar solvation in hydrophobic media. In addition, interactions between glucose molecules and between glucose and methanol, water, and IL were investigated by all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The MD simulation results showed that initial water and water/methanol molecules around glucose were gradually replaced by IL anions. Notably, SMM resulted in stronger interaction between IL anions and glucose than WMM, which was attributed to greater solubility of sugar in ILs prepared by SMM. Resultantly, the productivity of lipase-catalyzed production of glucose laurate using supersaturated glucose solution in [Bmim][TfO]/[Bmim][Tf₂N] mixture prepared by SMM was at least 1.76-fold greater than that obtained in IL mixture prepared by WMM.