Chengdong Zhang, Hao Wang, S. Malhotra
May 11, 2010
Citations
2
Influential Citations
60
Citations
Journal
Green Chemistry
Abstract
We investigated the biodegradation of ionic liquids N-ethylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate [EtPy]+[BF4]−, N-ethylpyridinium trifluoroacetate [EtPy]+[CF3COO]−, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [BMIM]+[PF6]− by a soil bacterium isolated by an enrichment-culture technique. The bacterium identified as Corynebacterium sp. degraded the N-ethylpyridinium cation in the first two compounds when present as its sole carbon and nitrogen source without any obvious effects of the anion; however, [BMIM]+[PF6]− was not metabolized. We observed cleavage of the pyridinium ring and identified the resulting metabolites by ESI/MS/MS. We propose a degradation pathway.