Gdansk University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Process Engineering and Chemical Technology, G. Narutowicza St. 11/12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland.
Gdansk University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Microbiology, G. Narutowicza St. 11/12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland.
J Hazard Mater. 2022 Mar 5;425:127963. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127963. Epub 2021 Dec 1.
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were described at the beginning of 21st century and they consist of a mixture of two or more solid components, which gives rise to a lower melting point compared to the starting materials. Over the years, DESs have proved to be a promising alternative to traditional organic solvents and ionic liquids (ILs) due to their low volatility, low inflammability, easy preparation, and usually low cost of compounds used in their preparation. All these properties encouraged researchers to use them in diverse fields and applications e.g., as extractants for biomolecules and solvents in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Nevertheless, despite undeniable potential of DESs, there is still controversy about their toxicity. Besides the low number of studies on this topic, there are also some contradicting reports on biocompatibility of these solvents. Such misleading reports could be mainly attributed to the lack of well design standard protocol for DESs toxicity determination or the use of out-off-purpose methodology. Thus, to better apply DESs in green and sustainable chemistry, more studies on their impact on organisms at different trophic levels and the use of proper techniques are required. This review focuses on DESs toxicity towards microorganisms and is divided into three parts: The first part provides a brief general introduction to DESs, the second part discusses the methodologies used for assessment of DESs microbial toxicity and the obtained results, and finally in the third part the critical evaluation of the methods is provided, as well as suggestions and guidelines for future research.
深共晶溶剂 (DESs) 是在 21 世纪初被描述的，它们由两种或多种固体成分组成，与起始材料相比，其熔点较低。多年来，由于 DESs 具有挥发性低、不易燃、易于制备以及通常用于制备它们的化合物成本低等优点，已被证明是传统有机溶剂和离子液体 (ILs) 的一种有前途的替代品。所有这些特性都鼓励研究人员将其应用于各种领域和应用，例如作为生物分子的提取剂以及制药和化妆品行业的溶剂。尽管深共晶溶剂具有不可否认的潜力，但关于其毒性仍存在争议。除了关于该主题的研究数量较少外，还有一些关于这些溶剂的生物相容性的相互矛盾的报告。这种误导性的报告主要归因于缺乏用于确定深共晶溶剂毒性的精心设计的标准协议，或使用非目的方法。因此，为了在绿色和可持续化学中更好地应用深共晶溶剂，需要更多研究它们对不同营养级别的生物体的影响，并使用适当的技术。本综述重点介绍了深共晶溶剂对微生物的毒性，分为三个部分：第一部分简要介绍了深共晶溶剂，第二部分讨论了用于评估深共晶溶剂微生物毒性的方法学及其获得的结果，最后第三部分对方法进行了批判性评价，并为未来的研究提供了建议和指导。
