Abstract

Microwave-assisted organic synthesis has gained a remarkable interest over the past years because of its advantages - (i) rapid energy transfer and superheating, (ii) higher yield and rapid reaction, (iii) cleaner reactions. Ionic liquids are well known for their unique properties such as negligible vapor pressure and high thermal stability. With these properties, ionic liquids have gained increasing attention as green, multi-use reaction media. Recently, ionic liquids have been applied as reaction media for biocatalysis. Lipase-catalyzed reactions in ionic liquids provide high activity and yield compared to conventional organic solvents or solvent free system. Since polar molecules are generally good absorbent to microwave radiation, ionic liquids were investigated as reaction media to improve activity and productivity. In this study, therefore, the effect of microwave irradiation in ionic liquids was investigated on lipase catalyzed reactions such as benzyl acetate synthesis and caffeic acid phenethyl ester synthesis. Comparing to conventional heating, microwave heating showed almost the same final conversion but increased initial reaction rate (3.03 mM/min) compared to 2.11 mM/min in conventional heating at 50 oC.