Synthesis, characterization, ecotoxicity and biodegradability evaluations of novel biocompatible surface active lauroyl sarcosinate ionic liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) based surfactants have been emerged as attractive alternatives to the conventional surfactants owing to their tailor-made and eco-friendly properties. Therefore, present study described the synthesis of nine new fatty amino acids based IL surfactants utilizing lauroyl sarcosinate anion and pyrrolidinium, imidazolium, pyridinium, piperidinium, morpholinium and cholinium cations for the first time. The synthesized surface active lauroyl sarcosinate ionic liquids (SALSILs) were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and TGA. Next, the surface tension and critical micellar concentrations were determined and compared with the surface properties of ILs based surfactants. Further, the toxicity and biodegradability of the synthesized SALSIILs were evaluated to confirm their safe and efficient process applications. The studies revealed that three out of nine synthesized SALSILs containing pyridinium cation have showed strong activity towards the tested microbial growth. The remaining six SALSILs met the biocompatible measures demonstrating moderate to low activity depends on the tested microbes. The alicyclic SALSILs containing morpholinium and piperidinium cations have demonstrated 100% biodegradation after 28 days of the test period. Overall, it is believed that the synthesized SALSILs could effectively replace the conventional surfactants in a wide variety of applications.