Choline-Based Deep Eutectic Solvents for Enzymatic Preparation of Epoxy Linseed Oil

Abstract

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) hold the potential to serve as a sustainable and environmentally friendly substitute for supercritical fluids, ionic liquids, and organic solvents. Moreover, DESs have been demonstrated to assist in stabilizing the structure of enzyme. The enzymatic synthesis of epoxy vegetable oil in a DES-system was developed in this study, and the influence of DESs viscosity on the epoxidation system was investigated for the first time. The results demonstrated that the epoxy value reached 8.97, and the double bond conversion rate was 82.48%. The viscosity of the reaction system decreased from 209.32 to 91.35 (mPa·s). The application of DES in epoxidation was confirmed through structural characterization, indicating that eutectic solvents could serve as substitutes for toxic and volatile organic solvents in synthesizing high-epoxide vegetable oils using an enzymatic method, thus facilitating the production of environmentally friendly plasticizers.