ABSTRACT
Chemistry and the chemical industry play an important role in our lives, but there is growing demand for chemical processes to follow a policy of environmental care. Ideally, the industry should be non-hazardous, sustainable, and as minimally harmful as possible for the health of people and ecosystems. Ionic liquids (ILs) have appeared as new solvents with the potential to ensure the sustainability of an extremely broad range of chemical processes: indeed, the use of ILs is a paradigmatic example of green chemistry. More importantly, the ability of ILs as a solvent medium to support biocatalytic reactions should be emphasized. Enzymes are natural catalysts that combine high efficiency and selectivity with mild reaction conditions. The great advantage of the sponge-like behavior of some ILs is the ability to easily separate products from the reaction medium, which, in turn, contains the enzyme that can be reused.
