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Published on: January 10, 2017
Chiral plasmonic Cu2-xS quantum dots enable chirality-dependent fluorescent recognition of tryptophan enantiomers
Meihan Guo1, Ruiju Yang1, Chenlei Gu1
1Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analytics, Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
Abstract:
The accurate discrimination and quantification of chiral amino acids enantiomers have remained significant challenges in both chemistry and biology. In this study, we employed an etching method to synthesize two types of chiral plasmonic fluorescent Cu2-xS quantum dots for efficient enantioselective L/D-tryptophan (Trp) enantiomers. Specifically, homochiral interactions between the Cu2-xS and Trp enantiomers led to fluorescence enhancement, which could be attributed to the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. In contrast, heterochiral interaction led to negligible fluorescence change. Leveraging these fluorescence variations, sensitive discrimination and detection of Trp enantiomers using L-Cu2-xS with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.3 μM for L-Trp, where the enantioselective fluorescence enhancement ratio reached up to 447. And the LOD was 0.1 μM for D-Trp using D-Cu2-xS, where the enantioselective fluorescence enhancement ratio was 11.8. This research not only provides an effective strategy for the preparation of chiral plasmonic materials with strong emission properties but also offers a simple yet sensitive method for chiral recognition, thereby opening up new perspectives and opportunities in related research fields.
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