Biodegradable, non-bactericidal oxygen-functionalised imidazolium esters: A step towards 'greener' ionic liquids

A series of imidazolium ionic liquids was prepared and screened against 7 bacterial strains. The incorporation of ether groups into the ester side-chain significantly reduced the toxicity compared with alkyl ester derivatives. Biodegradation data are also presented for 15 of the ionic liquids-including 6 examples which can be classed as readily biodegradable.