Regulating Molecular Affinity within Tailored UiO-66 via Green Synthesis for High-Precision Identification and Kinetic Separation of Adenine and Its Nucleosides

Efficient separation and purification of adenine and its nucleoside compounds are essential for the development of biology and medicinal chemistry. A series of UiO-66-R adsorbents (R = H, −OH, −NH 2, and −COOH) has been prepared to investigate the selective separation of functional groups in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for the separation of adenine compounds, such as adenine, 2′-deoxyadenosine, 3′-deoxyadenosine, and adenosine. Compared to UiO-66 synthesized by the hydrothermal method, the other three UiO-66-R MOFs were synthesized using an environmentally friendly, room-temperature synthesis method, which also showed highly crystalline structures and relatively uniform particle size distributions. The adsorption results demonstrated that UiO-66-(OH) 2 exhibits the best adsorption selectivity for adenine due to its high adsorption capacity and rapid adsorption kinetics. Through kinetic separation regulation, adenine can be efficiently extracted from the mixed purine solution, with a 98.2% removal rate after only 9 adsorption cycles with a low adsorbent concentration of 1 mg mL –1 and a high initial adenine concentration of 500 μmol L –1 . This study provides new insights into the separation of adenine nucleobase and its nucleosides and demonstrates promising application prospects in the field of nucleoside chemical separation.