Development of deep eutectic solvent-based aqueous biphasic system for the extraction of lysozyme

Aqueous Biphasic Systems (ABSs) based on deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were determined and applied in the extraction of lysozyme from chicken egg white. Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) and benzyltributylammonium bromide were utilized as hydrogen-bond acceptors to synthesize six kinds of DESs with different carboxylic acids (such as glycolic acid, Gly). The phase-formation ability of these DESs was evaluated by combining several salts. The results revealed that the content of hydrophilic group and the alkyl side chain length of the carboxylic acids played a crucial role in phase separation process, and the introduce of the benzyl group for quaternary ammonium salt had an aptitude to promote two-phase splitting. Then the system comprising [TBAB][Gly] and Na2SO4 was used to appraise the effect of different experimental parameters on the extraction efficiency, including the amount of DES and salt, the temperature, the values of pH and the ionic strength. More than 98% of lysozyme was transferred into the DES-rich phase at the optimum condition. The activity of lysozyme after the process of extraction still retained 91.73% of initial activity, demonstrating high biocompatibility of the studied system. What's more, the proposed method was successfully utilized for the real sample analysis. Finally, UV–vis, FT-IR, circular dichroism spectra, dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy were employed to investigate the extraction mechanism. All of these results verify the excellent feasibility of the proposed system in the analysis of biological samples. [Display omitted] •Six carboxylic acid-based DESs were developed to extract lysozyme via ABSs.•The activity and conformation of lysozyme were well kept in the studied ABSs.•The studied system was successfully applied to the real sample analysis.•Aggregation phenomenon played a crucial role in extraction process.