Biosurfactants such as biorhamnolipid based ionic liquids for antimicrobial materials

Surfactants (surface active agents) have dual characteristics of hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity which lead them to concentrate at interfaces as well as to aggregate into several supramolecular architectures rendering them unique properties. The possibility to explore the surfactant properties in combination with ionic liquids (ILs) has gained significant attention in recent years. ILs are organic salts with melting points below 100 ºC, which can be tailor-made and are factually both old and new, as the first was discovered in 1914, but have flourish in the last decades. Recent biosurfactants, produced by microbial strains, such as biorhamnolipids (glycolipids with L-rhamnose and β-hydroxy fatty acids, isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, reference ATCC9027, were combined with cations of interest to synthesise ILs for antimicrobial materials. Biorhamnolipids have reported antimicrobial activity against staphylococcus aureus, a gram-positive bacterium which is frequently the cause of medical device-associated infections. Incorporation within hydrogel materials, commonly employed as lubricious coatings for such devices, may prevent contamination and subsequent progression of infection. This represents a bacteriostatic approach which is less likely to promote resistant bacteria populations, compared with traditional drug-based strategies. In this communication, new biorhamnolipid based ILs have been prepared using sustainable processes and then characterized by different spectroscopic techniques in order to evaluate the expected chemical structure, cation-anion proportion as well as final purities.