Discrimination of chiral amino acid enantiomers through photoelectrochemical sensing platform

Chirality plays fundamental functions in the activity of biological molecules and broad classes of chemical reactions, but its recognition and detection still remain a great challenge. Herein, inspired by the stereo-control characteristics of chiral amino acids adjacent to the active sites of natural enzymes, a photoelectrochemical (PEC) chiral sensor was constructed by encapsulating Au nanoparticles with the recognition unit L-Cysteine into mesoporous BiVO₄ skeleton. The chiral sensor exhibits a high sensitivity and selectivity discrimination of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) enantiomers. The possible mechanism of enantioselectivity was proposed with the guidance of DFT calculations, suggesting that the origin of chiral selectivity lies in the different hydrogen bonds forms between L-Cys and DOPA. This work provides a powerful strategy for constructing PEC chiral sensing device with excellent chiral recognition performance.