Unusually high thermal stability and peroxidase activity of cytochrome c in ionic liquid colloidal formulation.

Ionic liquid (IL) surfactant choline dioctylsulfosuccinate, [Cho][AOT], formed polydispersed vesicular structures in the IL, ethylmethylimidazolium ethylsulfate, [C2mim][C2OSO3]. Cytochrome c dissolved in such a colloidal medium has shown very high peroxidase activity (∼2 times to that in neat IL and ∼4 times to that in an aqueous buffer). Significantly, the enzyme retained both structural stability and functional activity in IL colloidal solutions up to 180 °C, demonstrating the suitability of the system as a high temperature bio-catalytic reactor.