Chiral recognition of the carnitine enantiomers using rhodamine B as a resonance Rayleigh scattering probe

A novel and simple method for simultaneous determination of chiral carnitine (CA) enantiomers was proposed. In this work, the rhodamine B (RhB) could react with D-CA and L-CA, and new resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) peaks were generated. According to the polarization experiments, it could be testified that scattering peak of this system was composed of resonance fluorescence and scattering light. The RRS intensity of the RhB could be enhanced with the addition of D- or L-CA. However, The RRS signal with L-CA had greater degree increased. So a useful assay program for the selective and simultaneous determination of CA enantiomers was built via the RRS signal differences of the two CA enantiomers responding to RhB. The results showing a good linear relationship and high correlation coefficient were obtained, and the detection limit was calculated as 0.086 μg·mL^-1 (D-CA) and 0.042 μg·mL^-1 (CA). Here, new built RRS method with RhB as chiral probe could be applied to achieve selective analysis through this work. The applicability of the chiral recognition of CA enantiomers mixtures in samples had been demonstrated by its low cost, sensitivity, enantioselectivity, simplicity, and good availability of the materials.