Chiral Mesoporous Silica Materials: A Review on Synthetic Strategies and Applications

Abstract

Because of its tunable textural properties and chirality feature, chiral mesoporous silica (CMS) gained significant consideration in many fields and has been developed rapidly in recent years. In this review, we provide an overview of synthesis strategies for fabricating CMS together with its main applications. The properties of CMS, including morphology and mesostructures and enantiomer excess (ee), can be altered according to the synthetic conditions during the synthesis process. Despite its primary stage, CMS has attracted extensive attention in many fields. In particular, CMS nanoparticles are widely used for enantioselective resolution and adsorption of chiral compounds with desirable separation capability. Also, CMS acts as a promising candidate for the effective delivery of chiral or achiral drugs to produce a chiral-responsive manner. Moreover, CMS also plays an important role in chromatographic separations and asymmetric catalysis. There has been an in-depth review of the synthetic methods and mechanisms of CMS. And this review aims to give a deep insight into the synthesis and application of CMS, especially in recent years, and highlights the significance that it may have in the future.

Cooperative formation of porous silica and peptides on the prebiotic Earth

“…Properties of these materials can be manipulated further through functionalization of the organic molecules to produce mesoporous silica with large chiral internal surface area (33). These examples and others in a review by Cui et al (34) show that chirality in mesoporous silica can be induced through a variety of synthetic pathways involving both chiral and achiral SDA.…”

Designing Sites in Heterogeneous Catalysis: Are We Reaching Selectivities Competitive With Those of Homogeneous Catalysts?

“…Nevertheless, these materials have been successfully tested for the enantioselective resolution and adsorption of chiral compounds, for the delivery of chiral drugs, and for chromatographic separations. 1489 More relevant to this review, a helical mesoporous silica has been shown to, by virtue of the homohelicity of its structure, enantioselectively promote the asymmetric production of pyrimidyl alkanol from diisopropylzinc (i-Pr2Zn) and pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde. 1490 In another case, similar materials were shown to add diaestereoselectivity to the Mannich reaction (Figure 107).…”

“…One particularly curious type of shape selectivity uses chiral mesoporous materials to introduce enantioselectivity in catalytic reactions. The synthesis of chiral mesoporous materials has constituted a challenge in itself, and is a field still in its infancy. − Moreover, most of the few chiral mesoporous materials available to date are unstable, a fact that limits their application. Nevertheless, these materials have been successfully tested for the enantioselective resolution and adsorption of chiral compounds, for the delivery of chiral drugs, and for chromatographic separations .…”

“…The synthesis of chiral mesoporous materials has constituted a challenge in itself, and is a field still in its infancy. − Moreover, most of the few chiral mesoporous materials available to date are unstable, a fact that limits their application. Nevertheless, these materials have been successfully tested for the enantioselective resolution and adsorption of chiral compounds, for the delivery of chiral drugs, and for chromatographic separations . More relevant to this review, a helical mesoporous silica has been shown to, by virtue of the homohelicity of its structure, enantioselectively promote the asymmetric production of pyrimidyl alkanol from diisopropylzinc (i-Pr2Zn) and pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde .…”

Chiral Silica with Preferred-Handed Helical Structure via Chiral Transfer

“…Silica-based chiral materials such as helical mesoporous silica have attracted considerable attention in the fields of catalysis, templating, and chiral recognition. − These materials are prepared by sol–gel transcription using an organic chiral structure as a template. − This process is generally tedious, requiring many steps and long reaction times. Moreover, the chemical reaction leads to an aggregated structure approximately few μm to 100 nm in length with a 2–3 nm helical pore.…”