I have recently begun a program of research looking at ionogels as platform technologies for non-aqueous biocatalysis, bioelectronics, biomedical devices, and biosensing.
Ionic liquid gel systems, or ‘ionogels’, are an exciting new set of materials that combine the properties of traditional hydrogels with the interesting and highly versatile properties of ionic liquids. These novel systems, are as of yet, relatively understudied, particularly with their potential as supports for biocatalysts.
Projects will involve the synthesis of ionogels with a number of functional components, including enzymes. The focus of the initial work will be to assess thermal stability and solvent stability of the gels, and how they impact simple biocatalytic cascades.
Key Papers
A. P. S. Brogan, et al., Mater. Horiz. 2020, 7, 820-826.
A. P. S. Brogan, N. Heldman, J. P. Hallett, and A. M. Belcher, Chem. Commun. 2019, 55, 10752–10755.