Bio-Inspired Nanocomposites: From Synthesis Toward Potential Applications

In recent years, the extraordinary properties of bio-inspired nanocomposites have stimulated great interest in the development of bottom-up synthetic approaches to organic-inorganic hybrid materials in which molecular scale control is exerted over the interface between the organic and inorganic moieties. These developments have led to advanced materials with novel properties and potential use in catalysis, sensing, separations and environmental remediation. Periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials are an entirely new class of nanocomposites with molecularly integrated organic/inorganic networks, high surface areas and pore volumes, and well ordered and uniform size pores and channels. We recently have extended the approach to include novel PMO materials incorporating chiral and heteroatom-containing organic functional groups inside the inorganic framework that may be useful in asymmetric catalysis, enantiomeric separations and heavy metal remediation.