A "green" strategy to construct non-covalent, stable and bioactive coatings on porous MOF nanoparticles.

Nanoparticles made of metal-organic frameworks (nanoMOFs) attract a growing interest in gas storage, separation, catalysis, sensing and more recently, biomedicine. Achieving stable, versatile coatings on highly porous nanoMOFs without altering their ability to adsorb molecules of interest represents today a major challenge. Here we bring the proof of concept that the outer surface of porous nanoMOFs can be specifically functionalized in a rapid, biofriendly and non-covalent manner, leading to stable and versatile coatings. Cyclodextrin molecules bearing strong iron complexing groups (phosphates) were firmly anchored to the nanoMOFs' surface, within only a few minutes, simply by incubation with aqueous nanoMOF suspensions. The coating procedure did not affect the nanoMOF porosity, crystallinity, adsorption and release abilities. The stable cyclodextrin-based coating was further functionalized with: i) targeting moieties to increase the nanoMOF interaction with specific receptors and ii) poly(ethylene glycol) chains to escape the immune system. These results pave the way towards the design of surface-engineered nanoMOFs of interest for applications in the field of targeted drug delivery, catalysis, separation and sensing.

Chiral separation of pyrethroic acids with single isomer permethyl monoamino beta-cyclodextrin selector.

Enantiomers and diastereomers of chrysanthemic, permethrinic, and deltamethrinic pyrethroic acids were separated from each other, using positively ionizable permethyl monoamino beta-cyclodextrin (PMMAbetaCD). The highest chiral resolution value was 20.0. The optimum conditions of separation were found to be 16 mM PMMAbetaCD concentration and pH 6.5, where analytes and selector were in oppositely ionized states. Selectivity of PMMAbetaCD proved to be the best among the cyclodextrin derivatives studied.

Enantiomer separation of disopyramide with capillary electrophoresis using various cyclodextrins.

Enantiomers of disopyramide display different biological actions, and therefore chiral selective analysis is necessary. Fifteen different cyclodextrins (CDs) and CD derivatives were tested as capillary electrophoresis (CE) additives for the chiral separation of disopyramide. Eleven types of CDs showed chiral recognition features and four types had a baseline or close to baseline separation. The best resolution (Rs = 3.0) was with 15 mM carboxymethylated beta-CD (pH 4.9). A sharp decrease in the selectivity of gamma-phosphate (gamma-PhoCD) was observed in the pH range of 2-3, indicating a structural change of gamma-PhoCD. The enantiomers of disopyramide were separated in its ionized as well as neutral forms using acidic substituted CDs. The results show that the size of the CD cavity can not be used as a guide to estimate chiral separations, suggesting a more complex separation mechanism of these CDs towards disopyramide.