Toxicity of Selected Imidazolium-based Ionic Liquids on Caenorhabditis elegans:a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Study

Due to the large number of ionic liquids (ILs) and their potential environmental risk, assessing the toxicity of ILs by ecotoxicological experiment only is insufficient. Quantitative structureactivity relationship (QSAR) has been proven to be a quick and effective method to estimate the viscosity, melting points, and even toxicity of ILs. In this work, the LC₅₀ values of 30 imidazolium-based ILs were determined with Caenorhabditis elegans as a model animal. Four suitable molecular descriptors were selected on the basis of genetic function approximation algorithm to construct a QSAR model with an R² value of 0.938. The predicted lgLC₅₀ in this work are in agreement with the experimental values, indicating that the model has good stability and predictive ability. Our study provides a valuable model to predict the potential toxicity of ILs with different sub-structures to the environment and human health.