Gordana Martinovic Defended Her Master Thesis

On April 8, Gordana Martinovic defended her master thesis entitled “Electromembrane extraction of peptides using deep eutectic solvents as liquid membranes”. As the title implies, this work investigated the potential for using deep eutectic solvents (DES) as liquid membranes in electromembrane extraction (EME) of peptides. The project was inspired by a recent publication from our research group, where DES were successfully used as liquid membranes in EME of polar basic drugs. The present work has identified both cation-π interactions (between the DES components and cationic peptides) as well as ionic interactions (between the ionic carrier di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphate and cationic peptides) important for extraction. The results are important for future EME, and especially for development of selective EME of peptides (and potentially proteins), which will be of high priority in our future EME research.