What is the taste of vitamin-based ionic liquids?

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The detailed volumetric and viscometric investigation of three vitamin-based ionic liquids (ILs): cholinium biotinate ([Ch][Biot]), cholinium ascorbate ([Ch][Asc]) and cholinium nicotinate ([Ch][Nicot]), have been performed in this article in order to get insight about the taste of ILs. The apparent molar volume of solute (Vϕ), apparent molar volume at infinite dilution (Vϕo), viscosity B-coefficients and hydration numbers were calculated to understand structuring of water in the aqueous solutions of investigated ionic liquids. It was found that studied ILs act as the structure promoters. Additionally, molecular dynamics simulations and DFT calculations were applied for detailed investigation of interactions in the mentioned systems. The bitter taste behaviour was discussed from calculated values of apparent specific volume and intrinsic viscosity. Results obtained by molecular docking confirmed that docking position is more responsible for bitter taste behaviour than the binding strength to receptor TAS2R38.