Selective enrichment of phosphopeptides by titania nanoparticles coated magnetic carbon nanotubes

Selective enrichment of phosphoproteins or phosphopeptides from complex mixtures is essential for mass spectrometry (MS)-based phosphoproteomics. In this work, for the first time, titania nanoparticles coated magnetic carbon nanotubes (denoted as MagCNTs@TiO2 composites) were synthesized through a facile but effective solvothermal reaction for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. The MagCNTs@TiO2 material demonstrated low limit of detection (20 fmol), along with an exceptional great specificity to capture phosphopeptides from a tryptic digest of the mixture of a nonphosphorylated protein BSA and a phosphorylated protein β-casein with molar ratios of BSA/β-casein up to 200:1. In addition, the high magnetic susceptibility allowed convenient separation of the target peptides by magnetic separation. Experimental results demonstrated that the MagCNTs@TiO2 composites showed excellent potential for the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides for MS analysis.