Surface Modification of Porous Silica Particles with Carbohydrate Scaffolds as Receptor Components for Molecular Recognition

Biosensors play a pivotal role in diagnosis through specific receptor-ligand interactions. However, receptor biomolecules such as proteins have inevitable stability issues due to denaturation. Alternatively, utilization of the small molecules multivalently presented on porous silica particles as receptor components is considered to address the stability issues. A series of receptor components was synthesized using carbohydrates as a chiral scaffold to support multiple functional groups. The synthesized molecules were attached on the porous silica particles. Raman spectral analyses of single silica particles in the presence of nitrobenzene derivatives revealed a specific interaction with 4-nitrophenol among others using a confocal Raman microscope. Chiral selective recognition was also accomplished for (1S,3S)- and (1R,3R)-2-amino-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3-propanediols. Protected carbohydrate derivatives are shown to be useful as receptor components on porous silica particles.