5-methyl-salicylaldoxime based ionic liquids for non-destructive separation of protein and cadmium

Confronting with explosive cadmium contaminations to environment, non-destructive separation of protein with cadmium for protecting food safety is hardpressed. Ionic liquids (ILs) are benign bio-compatible stabilizer of proteins with considerable metal affinity, while their application in separation of cadmium from protein is limited owing to their comparative metal affinities with protein. Accordingly, we firstly synthesize 1-methyl-3 (salicylaldoxime-5-methyl) imidazole hexafluorophosphate ([Salenmim][PF6]) to enhance cadmium extraction with hydroxyl and oxime groups as ligands of cadmium. Structure of [Salenmim][PF6] is confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 31P NMR, 19F NMR, FT-IR, Raman spectra, and theoretical simulations. [Salenmim][PF6] can remove 85.31 % of Cd2+ from bovine serum albumin (BSA) at pH of 2.0. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of BSA and [Salenmim][PF6] before and after Cd2+ extraction illustrate that Cd2+ generally bonds with C = N and O-H of [Salenmim][PF6] to achieve detachment of Cd2+ from BSA. Molecular docking of BSA and Cd2+ indicates that 4 amino acids residues listed as ASP561, ASP562, LYS563, and GLU564 coordinate with Cd2+ with coordinate number close to 1, further confirmed as 1.48 by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) analysis. DFT calculations of [Salenmim][PF6] with Cd2+ demonstrate that energy gap between HOMO orbital localized at benzene ring is 1.6860 eV higher than LUMO orbital, faciliating formation of [Salenmim][PF6]-Cd2+ complex. Finally, there are no changes in secondary and tertiary structure of BSA and no ILs residual observed after [Salenmim][PF6] assisted Cd2+ extraction. This work firstly reports a method for synthesis of [Salenmim][PF6] with high affinity to cadmium and systemically reveals how do structure of [Salenmim][PF6] enhance heavy metal removal from proteins, providing a possible strategy for heavy metal extraction from proteins.