# Tailoring the Hydrophobicity of Mesoporous Organosilica for Protein Trapping and Supported Catalysis

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to modify organosilica surfaces with methyl or phenyl groups, improving protein trapping and catalytic performance for specific applications.

## Contribution

It presents a novel synthesis technique to tailor organosilica hydrophobicity, enhancing lysozyme trapping and supported copper catalysis.

## Key findings

- Phenyl-functionalized organosilica increases lysozyme trapping efficiency by 3.2 times.
- Methyl groups on organosilica significantly boost catalytic yield in triazole synthesis.
- The method allows customizable material properties for targeted applications.

## Abstract

We propose a method to enhance lysozyme trapping and supported-Copper catalysis when confined in organosilica materials. The direct synthesis presented here allows the control of the silica surface hydrophobicity by uniform introduction of methyl or phenyl groups. As a result, the lysozyme trapping is observed to be 3.2 times more efficient with the phenyl-functionalized material than MCM-41. For heterogeneous catalysis, Copper was immobilized on the new organosilica surface. In this case, the presence of methyl groups significantly enhanced the product yield for the catalyzed synthesis of a triazole derivative. This method opens a new route of synthesis where the material properties can be adjusted and dedicated to a specific application.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1904.05666