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 22+ ) recognition motifs possessing siderophore-like selectivity, however, presents a challenge. Herein we report a comprehensive theoretical, crystallographic and spectroscopic studies on the UO 22+ binding with a non-toxic siderophore-inspired chelator, 2,6-bis[hydroxy(methyl)amino]-4-morpholino-1,3,5-triazine (H 2 BHT). The optimal pK a values and structural preorganization endow H 2 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 2 BHT-functionalized polymeric adsorbent material that affords high uranium uptake capacity even in the presence of competing vanadium (V) ions in aqueous medium.
CITATION STYLE
Ivanov, A. S., Parker, B. F., Zhang, Z., Aguila, B., Sun, Q., Ma, S., … Popovs, I. (2019). Siderophore-inspired chelator hijacks uranium from aqueous medium. Nature Communications, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08758-1
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