Designed synthesis of fluorous-functionalized magnetic mesoporous microspheres for specific enrichment of...

In this work, for the first time, perfluorinated magnetic mesoporous microspheres were designed and synthesized for the highly specific enrichment of fluorous-derivatized phosphopeptides through the unique fluorine-fluorine interactions. The perfluorinated magnetic mesoporous microspheres were prepared through a surfactant-mediated one-pot approach and successfully applied to the selective extraction of fluorous-derivatized phosphopeptides from β-casein tryptic digest, protein mixtures, and human serum. Thanks to the hydrophilic silanol groups exposed on the surface, perfluorinated groups modified in the pore channels and the magnetic cores, the flourous-functionalized magnetic microspheres exhibited excellent dispersibility, specificity toward fluorous-derivatized phosphopeptides while facilitated separation procedures. The novel composites achieved a high selectivity of 1:1000 toward nonphosphorylated peptides and proved to be practicable in the enrichment of endogenous phosphopeptides in the human serum sample.