Fluorescent boronic acid terminated polymer grafted silica particles synthesized via click chemistry for affinity separation of saccharides

•Fluorogenic boronic acid terminated polymers were conjugated to silica particle.•The prepared material can conveniently separate saccharides from solution.•The prepared material displays increased fluorescence emission upon binding fructose.

Boronic acids are important for effective separation of biological active cis-diols. For the purpose of constructing a new type of saccharide-sensitive material which can not only provide convenient separation but also improve the access of boronic acid to guest molecules, the fluorogenic boronic acid terminated, thermo-sensitive polymers (BA-polyNIPAm) were grafted to an alkyne modified silica gel through the exploitation of click chemistry. The BA-polyNIPAm grafted silica gel (BA-polyNIPAm-SG) was characterized by FT-IR, fluorescence spectra, fluorescence microscopy, elemental analysis (EA), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and so on. BA-polyNIPAm-SG displayed affinity binding ability for saccharides under physiological pH value and allowed saccharides to be conveniently separated from solution. The maximum binding capacities for fructose and glucose are 83.2 μmol/g and 70.4 μmol/g polymer, respectively. The intensity of fluorescence emission of BA-polyNIPAm-SG increased with the increasing of fructose concentration. The present study provides a new kind of composite material which contains moveable and flexible grippers for recognizing and binding guest molecules.

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