Titanium dioxide‐functionalized dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles for highly selective isolation of phosphoproteins.

Selective isolation of phosphoproteins is of great significance in biological applications. Herein, titanium dioxide‐functionalized dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles are prepared via a post‐grafting method for selective capture of phosphoproteins. The fabricated nanoparticles possess a unique central‐radial pore structure with a surface area of 666.66 m2/g and a pore size of 22.2 nm. The high‐binding affinity of TiO2 with the phosphate groups facilitates the selective adsorption of phosphoproteins. Moreover, the open central‐radial pore structure endows the dendritic mesoporous nanoparticles with better adsorption performance toward phosphoproteins with respect to the commercial titanium dioxide nanoparticles and titanium dioxide‐functionalized conventional mesoporous silica nanoparticles by providing more accessible affinity sites. At pH 2, an adsorption capacity of 157.2 mg/g is derived for β‐casein. The feasibility of the as‐prepared dendritic material in real biological sample assay is demonstrated by the selective isolation of phosphoproteins from defatted milk, as illustrated by sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis assay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]