Synthesis of Nanoporous Iminodiacetic Acid Sorbents for Binding Transition Metals

Iminodiacetic acid (IDAA) forms strong complexes with a wide variety of metal ions. Using self-assembled monolayers in mesoporous supports (SAMMS) to present the IDAA ligand potentially allows for multiple metal-ligand interactions to enhance the metal binding affinity relative to that of randomly oriented polymer-based supports. This manuscript describes the synthesis of a novel nanostructured sorbent material built using self-assembly of a IDAA ligand inside a nanoporous silica, and demonstrates its use for capturing transition metal cations, and anionic metal complexes, such as PdCl(4) (-2).