Synthetic Molecular Receptors for Phosphates and Phosphonates in Sol-Gel Materials

Synthetic receptors for phosphates and phosphonates have been generated in SiO2 xerogels via a surface molecular imprinting method. The monomer 3-trimethoxy silylpropyl-1-guanidinium chloride (1) was developed to prepare receptor sites capable of binding with substrates through a combination of ionic and hydrogen bond interactions. HPLC studies and adsorption isotherms performed in water have found that molecular imprinting affords a significant improvement in Ka for phosphate and phosphonate affinity over a randomly functionalized xerogel. Affinities for these materials offer about an order of magnitude improvement in affinity compared to analogous small molecule receptors reported in the literature. The xerogel matrix appears to participate in host-guest interactions through anionic charge buildup with increasing pH.