Ionic liquids are often praised for their green credentials, yet they can be highly toxic. Now, researchers from the University of Manchester, UK, have shown that the liquids' interactions with living cells can be studied using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Their aim is to help scientists understand ionic liquid toxicity mechanisms in order to design safer variants in the future.rnGill Stephens and colleagues used FT-IR spectroscopy to show that the more toxic of the ionic liquids that they studied accumulated in bacterial cells faster than the less toxic ones, suggesting that there may be a link. They also found that the compounds accumulated in the cell membranes, not the cytoplasm inside. Previous research has suggested that ionic liquid toxicity is due to the fact that they disrupt membranes, says Stephens, and these results provide direct support for that idea.rn'I would be reluctant to say that this will be the only toxicity mechanism for ionic liquids though,' says Stephens.
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