Supramolecular Transcription of Guanosine Monophosphate into Mesostructured Silica

There is large interest in replicating biological supramolecular structures in inorganic materials that are capable of mimicking biological properties. The use of 5-guanosine monophosphate in the presence of Na(+) and K(+) ions as a supramolecular template for the synthesis of well-ordered mesostructured materials is reported here. Mesostructured particles with the confined template exhibit high structural order at both meso- and atomic scales, with a lower structural symmetry in the columnar mesophase. Although a chiral space group can not be deduced from X-ray diffraction, analysis by electron microscopy and circular dichroism confirms a chiral stacking arrangement along the c-axis. Guanosine monophosphate based mesophases thus illustrate the possibility for specific molecular imprinting of mesoporous materials by genetic material and the potential for higher definition in molecular recognition.