Homochiral fluorescence responsive molecularly imprinted polymer: Highly chiral enantiomer resolution and quantitative detection of L-penicillamine

In this work, we innovatively synthesized homochiral fluorescence nano molecularly imprinted polymers (DMIP) with dual affinity (metal ion affinity and homochiral affinity) for the specific separation and detection of Lpenicillamine (L-PA), which is a core-shell structure with a SiO2-covered CDs core and an imprinted layer with LPA cavities. A switch for fluorescence response was built by chelating grafted Cu2+, what?s more, the imprinted L-PA was pre immobilized by Cu2+ to form the directional imprinting with predetermined spatial structure. More importantly, the homochiral affinity of D-galactose in homochiral molecularly imprinted polymers (D-MIP) greatly enhanced the selective adsorption of L-PA, and D-MIP showed a high selectivity factor (?) of 3.45, which is 1.9 times that of the non-homochiral molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP). Meanwhile, D-MIP exhibited a high enantiomeric excess (ee) value of 56% for separation of racemic PA. Additionally, a high sensitive and selective method was established for the detection of L-PA.

Automated summary

In this study, homochiral fluorescence nano molecularly imprinted polymers with dual affinity were successfully synthesized for the specific separation and detection of L-penicillamine. The homochiral affinity of D-galactose in D-MIP significantly enhanced the selective adsorption of L-PA, resulting in high selectivity factor and enantiomeric excess values.