Enantioselective sol-gel materials obtained by either doping or imprinting with a chiral surfactant

Two methods for the preparation of bulk chiral silica materials, based on the use of a chiral surfactant were described. The chiral entity in the two types of matrices was different and therefore the enantioselective preferences before and after surfactant removal are not necessarily the same, and it was found that chiral discrimination changes before and after surfactant removal. Surfactants have been extensively used in template-directed synthesis, due to their ability to organize in typical structures such as micelles, rods, vesicles, and lamellae. Results showed that two new types of porous amorphous chiral materials are capable of enantioselecting within pairs of enantiomers which have not been used for the imprinting.