Interaction between ionic liquid and lysozyme: a conformational and stability aspect

Abstract

Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy is introduced to analyze the secondary structures of Lysozyme. Here, we studied the conformational changes in lysozyme protein in the presence of different concentrations of various ionic liquids, like 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (EMImCl), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMImCl) and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (HMImCl), as well as in varying the alkyl chain lengths attached to the cationic moiety, and also, the thermal stability of lysozyme at different concentrations of BMImCl are investigated by temperature-dependant absorbance study using UV-visible spectrophotometer. Moreover, the overall objective of our research is to qualitatively exploit the effect of ILs on protein conformation and stability. However, the findings reveals an inversely proportionality relationship between Lysozyme stability/conformational change and ionic liquid concentration/alkyl chain length.