A comparison of the solvation thermodynamics of amino acid analogues in water, 1-octanol and 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ionic liquids by molecular simulation

A computational approach is developed to quantitatively study the solvation thermodynamics of amino acid analogues in ionic liquids via molecular simulation. The solvation thermodynamics of amino acid analogues in ionic liquids is important for an understanding of protein-ionic liquid interactions, shedding insight into the structure and solubility of proteins, and the activity of enzymes in ionic liquids. This information is additionally key to developing novel extraction processes. As a result of the challenge of quantitatively describing the solvation behavior of ionic liquids, a key outcome of the present study is the development of a "hydrophobicity" scale to quantitatively describe the amino acid analogues. The scale allows one to separate the results of both the hydrophobic and hydrophillic analogues, simplifying an understanding of the observed trends. Equipped with the proposed hydrophobicity scale, one needs only perform conventional solvation free energy calculations of the amino acid analogues in the ionic liquids of interest. The necessary simulation tools are available in most open-source simulation software, facilitating the adoption of this approach by the simulation community at large. We have studied the case of varying the cation alkyl-chain length of a 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cation paired with the bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide anion. The findings suggest that a judicious selection of both the cation and anion could potentially lead to a solvent for which the amino acid analogues have an affinity far greater than that for both water and a non-polar reference solvent.