Photo-luminescent chiral carbon-dot@Eu(D-cam) nanocomposites for selectively luminescence sensing of l-phenylalanine

Abstract Currently the detection of l -phenylalanine is quite important in clinicians, which can be applied as a simple quantitative method to diagnose phenylketonuria, a common inherited disorder of amino acid metabolism. In this work, a novel chiral fluorescence hybrid probe CDs@Eu(D-cam) [CDs = Carbon-dot; D-cam = (1R, 3S)-(+)-Camphoric acid] can be successfully prepared through the encapsulation of the ultra-small carbon dots into the chiral Eu(D-cam) coordination framework to prepare the hybrid luminescent composites. The as-prepared fluorescent probe possesses good optical properties and solvent-stability, which has the potential to serve as a chemical sensor. The CDs@Eu(D-cam) fluorescent probe behaves good liner response to l -phenylalanine (L-phe) ranging from 3.3 to 27.532 mg/L and the detection limit is 0.00703 mg/L (S/N = 3). The current detection method can be successfully developed into the real sample discrimination of l -phenylalanine in urine.