Using pomelo peel for the synthesis of monolithic ordered mesoporous silica

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Monolithic ordered mesoporous silicas are highly attractive as sorbents in extraction techniques due to their physicochemical characteristics. To be really effective, there must be a balance between their macroporous and mesoporous structure. Macropores enhance the extraction kinetics allowing an easier diffusion of the target compounds from the bulk samples to the active surface of the material. Mesoporous defines the active surface of the material (directly related to the extraction capacity) and they are usually related to the selectivity of the material through a shape/size restriction mechanism. This balance is not easy to achieve and some research groups are investigating in new synthesis procedures.

Prof. Yu-Qi Feng and coworkers have recently proposed a new alternative in RSC Advances journal using a natural product, pomelo peel, as precursor [1]. The potential of the new material as well as the natural origin of one of the precursor (green chemistry) are highly remarkable.

Our colleagues proposed a double template model using Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and pomelo peel as soft and hard templates, respectively, and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica precursor. The idea, which is quite simple, consists of synthesizing silica structures by the Stöber method on the spongy surface of the pomelo peel. After the synthesis of the silica structure, the organic templates are completely removed by calcination.

They use the synthesized material in a lab-made in syringe SPE (solid phase extraction) system for the enrichment of peptides in biological samples. The analyses of the final extracts by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)- Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) have demonstrated the great potential of the material.

We hope that this excerpt has aroused your curiosity. We warmly recommend the reading of this article. The readers will find on it the following info

Detailed information that you can find in the original article
The description of the synthetic procedure
The characterization of the material using different techniques such as energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction, Nitrogen sorption measurements or microscopy
The description of the lab-made in syringe SPE
The practical application of the material for the enrichment of peptides

Reference

1) Bioinspired preparation of monolithic ordered mesoporous silica for enrichment of endogenous peptides. Link to the article

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