Enzymatic production of isoamyl acetate in an ionic liquid–alcohol biphasic system

A systematic investigation and optimization on the conditions for the biphasic enzymatic production of isoamyl acetate in ionic liquid solvents is reported. As a catalyst, immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B was used. As the best imidazolium type ionic liquid, [bmim]PF6 was selected and other reaction conditions such as initial water content, acetic acid to isoamyl alcohol substrate ratio, [bmim]PF6 to isoamyl alcohol solvent ratio, enzyme amount and temperature were optimized. The recyclability of the applied IL per se and together with enzyme were also studied and found to be reusable in 7 and 10 cycles, respectively. With the adjusted optimum conditions high isoamyl acetate yields (near 100%) were achieved.