The design of safe chemicals for the food industry is a worthwhile goal. The challenge is considerable as new and synthetic compounds of unknown toxicity are prepared in the laboratory. This talk will showcase our tandem approach of antimicrobial toxicity, biodegradation studies and targeted application to facilitate the development of safer novel chemicals. Interdisciplinary investigations are fundamental to the success of the project with organic chemists, microbiologists, environmental scientists and medicinal chemists working together.
Previous studies have focused on the ionic liquid class of chemicals and their roles as solvents, reagents and catalysts. Applications included reaction media for green synthetic methodologies, biomass dissolution, drug discovery, through to replacement solvents in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). Our latest work extends this to biodegradable surfactants where we can tune the antimicrobial toxicity, which will be presented in detail in the presentation.