Imprinting for the assembly of artificial receptors on a silica surface

Abstract

Molecular imprinting of a solid surface provides a means to introduce reactive functionalities with a defined geometry on the surface. A silica surface was imprinted with a tridentate metal complex, Ru[bipy–CHNCH₂CH₂CH₂Si(OEt)₃ ]₃ . The molecular imprinting process leaves three amino groups per Ru^II complex. The imprinted silica was reacted with various aldehydes to assemble artificial receptor sites on the surface. A metal binding site for Fe^II was constructed with a bipyridine-modified aldehyde that was selectively adsorbed on the surface in the presence of other two aldehydes and Fe^II .