Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
We report that a macrocyclic ligand enables transfer of a protein from an aqueous phase to ionic liquids. The extraction behavior of heme protein cytochrome c (Cyt-c) from an aqueous phase into ionic liquids was investigated with crown ethers. A hydroxyl-group-containing ionic liquid with dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 was found to be capable of quantitative partitioning of Cyt-c, whereas the protein transfer using conventional organic solvents was negligibly small. Furthermore, we clarified that Cyt-c solubilized in ionic liquids caused a structural transformation of Cyt-c, which triggers its functional conversion from an electron-transfer protein to peroxidase.
Shimojo et al. (Tue,) studied this question.