posted on 2021-12-09, 19:06authored byJingwen Chen, Ke Li, Jian Yang, Jinlou Gu
Despite
the fact that bimetallic metal–organic frameworks
(MOFs) could afford multiple functionalities by a synergistic effect
of individual metallic centers, their intrinsic microporous structure
frequently restricts their wide applications with bulky molecules
involved. An urgent need is consequently triggered to design bimetallic
hierarchical mesoporous MOFs (mesoMOFs). Herein, Zr/Ce mesoMOFs with
a uniform pore size of up to 8 nm was successfully synthesized by
a copolymer template strategy with the aid of a Hoffmeister ion. The
obtained Zr/Ce mesoMOFs feature high porosity, good chemical and thermal
stabilities, and tunable element components, and up to 70% Zr could
be incorporated into the mesoporous Ce-based framework without deteriorating
its crystallinity. Thanks to the synergistic effect of inherent Ce
and Zr as well as the large and open pore channels, a broad range
of phosphopeptides with different molecule sizes could be effectively
checked out, thanks to their simultaneous enrichment and dephosphorylation
capabilities. Such an ability to efficiently concentrate phosphopeptides
remained intact even in the presence of abundant non-phosphorylated
species. The practical detection of phosphopeptides from human serum
was also verified, prefiguring the great potentials of bimetallic
large-pore mesoMOFs for the proteome applications.