Siderophore-inspired chelator hijacks uranium from aqueous medium.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30778071.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-08758-1 and PMC identifier 6379418.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Over millennia, nature has evolved an ability to selectively recognize and sequester specific metal ions by employing a wide variety of supramolecular chelators. Iron-specific molecular carriers-siderophores-are noteworthy for their structural elegance, while exhibiting some of the strongest and most selective binding towards a specific metal ion. Development of simple uranyl (UO<sub>2</sub><sup>2+</sup>) recognition motifs possessing siderophore-like selectivity, however, presents a challenge. Herein we report a comprehensive theoretical, crystallographic and spectroscopic studies on the UO<sub>2</sub><sup>2+</sup> binding with a non-toxic siderophore-inspired chelator, 2,6-bis[hydroxy(methyl)amino]-4-morpholino-1,3,5-triazine (H<sub>2</sub>BHT). The optimal pK<sub>a</sub> values and structural preorganization endow H<sub>2</sub>BHT with one of the highest uranyl binding affinity and selectivity among molecular chelators. The results of small-molecule standards are validated by a proof-of-principle development of the H<sub>2</sub>BHT-functionalized polymeric adsorbent material that affords high uranium uptake capacity even in the presence of competing vanadium (V) ions in aqueous medium.