Neoteric solvents based blue biorefinery: Fuels, chemicals and functional materials from Oceanic biomass

Blue biorefinery is the integrate production of renewable chemicals, fuels, functional materials and marketable commodities utilising biomass of marine origin. Global climate issues, ever-increasing population and depletion of fossil resources...

Recent Trends in Processing of Proteins and DNA in Alternative Solvents: A Sustainable Approach

Throughout numerous research works on biomacromolecules, several breakthrough innovations have occurred in the field of biomacromolecule processing. Remarkable improvements have been made so far to address the problems associated with biomacromolecule processing technologies in terms of enhancing the efficiency of the processes. Green technology broadly focuses on the search for new techno-economic systems to replace the conventional systems which exhibit pernicious consequences for the environment and the health of organisms. The strategy practiced popularly is the use of alternate solvent systems, replacing the conventional toxic, volatile, and harsh organic solvents to prevent denaturation, biotransformation, enzyme activity loss, and degradation of biomacromolecules. Ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are emerging as greener alternatives over the past two decades and there has been an exponential increase in reports in the literature. The utility of neoteric solvents in biomacromolecule treatment may be envisaged for industrial processes in the near future. The current state of the art regarding the recent developments made over the past few years using neoteric solvents has been reviewed in this article. The recent scientific developments regarding the use of these neoteric solvents, especially ILs and DESs, for processes such as solubilization, extraction, and functionalization of biomacromolecules, especially proteins and DNA, have been addressed in this article. This review may be beneficial for designing novel and selective methodologies for the processing of biomacromolecules, opening doors for better material research in areas such as biotechnology and biological sciences.

Biocatalyzed Redox Processes Employing Green Reaction Media

The application of biocatalysts to perform reductive/oxidative chemical processes has attracted great interest in recent years, due to their environmentally friendly conditions combined with high selectivities. In some circumstances, the aqueous buffer medium normally employed in biocatalytic procedures is not the best option to develop these processes, due to solubility and/or inhibition issues, requiring biocatalyzed redox procedures to circumvent these drawbacks, by developing novel green non-conventional media, including the use of biobased solvents, reactions conducted in neat conditions and the application of neoteric solvents such as deep eutectic solvents.

Innovative Solutions for the Isolation of Vitamins from Pharmaceutical and Biological Samples

BACKGROUND: Isolation of vitamins from complex matrices, such as pharmaceutical and biological samples, is a demanding task. Progresses in material science are revolutionizing sample preparation, leading to the development of more efficient, sensitive and selective analytical methods. In particular, the evolution of solid-phase extraction towards miniaturized techniques is closely related to the introduction of nanomaterials as new sorbents. Microextraction techniques, both solid-based and liquid-based, allow for the reduction of solvent and sample volumes, as well as the sample processing times. In many cases these procedures are also environmentally friendly. Moreover, the substitution of traditional organic solvents with the neoteric ones is another current trend in analytical chemistry. The aim of this review is to introduce readers to the innovative solutions available for the extraction of vitamins from matrices of different complexity. METHODS: Research papers in the literature of last five years are reviewed, providing a critical description of the most original and interesting sample preparation approaches devoted to vitamin isolation. RESULTS: Among the last 5 years literature concerning the analysis of vitamins in the clinical and pharmaceutical sectors, only 40% of works applied some innovative or green approaches to sample preparation. However, a general trend is the reduction of solvent volumes and sample processing times. CONCLUSION: The great potential of microextraction techniques based on nanomaterials and neoteric solvents has not been fully exploited yet in the clinical and pharmaceutical fields. Considering the high cost of carbon-based nanomaterials, it can be foreseen that the most promising solution for sample preparation in the near future are the liquid microextraction techniques based on neoteric solvents. Thanks to their low cost, environmental compatibility, simplicity, speediness and high enrichment factor, these extractive techniques are particularly attractive for vitamin analysis.