Metal
oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) is considered to be
one of the most effective methods for phosphopeptide enrichment. However,
most of the materials used in the method are powder; frequent centrifugation
is necessitated during the enrichment process, and potential risks
of loss of peptides and materials and clogging of the column employed
for liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS)
arise. Moreover, the reusability of these materials to achieve sustainability
was hardly investigated. To overcome these limitations, herein, inorganic
titanium dioxide (TiO2) was coated onto the skeletal surface
of the organic cellulose monolith (CM) material with a coral-like
structure via a sol–gel method. This produced
an organic–inorganic hybrid TiO2-CM material, which
contained a combination of organic and inorganic substances, making
it mimic the mollusk shell in terms of composition. The prepared TiO2-CM material as monolith exhibited excellent mechanical strength
and did not break during the enrichment process; thus, the tedious
implementation of multiple centrifugation cycles was prevented, thereby
streamlining the experimental procedure and avoiding the loss of peptides
and materials. Moreover, a large amount of TiO2 was introduced
onto the surface of the CM material, and thus, the resultant TiO2-CM material exhibited a large surface area. As a result,
the fabricated TiO2-CM material was successfully applied
to the enrichment of phosphopeptides obtained from the tryptic digests
of a BSA/β-casein (mass ratio, 500/1) mixture. The results were
superior to those achieved for commercial TiO2 beads, confirming
that TiO2-CM has excellent selectivity for phosphopeptides
and reusability. Furthermore, 9287 unique phosphopeptides derived
from the 2661 phosphoproteins were successfully identified from two
milligrams of tryptic digests of Hela cell exosomes obtained through
five independent replications after enriching using the TiO2-CM material. The results indicated that the material has good application
prospects in the analysis of protein phosphorylation. Furthermore,
TiO2-CM consists of green and cheap cellulose as the skeleton,
and its synthesis process is environment-friendly, simple, and inexpensive.