Chemoselective and enantioselective fluorescent identification of specific amino acid enantiomers

in aqueous solution. These findings have demonstrated that highly selective fluorescence identification of a specific amino acid enantiomer can be achieved by incorporating certain functional groups at the designated locations of the 1,1'-binaphthyls. The binaphthyl core structure of these probes provides both a chirality source and highly tunable fluorescence properties. Matching the structure and chirality of these probes with those of the specific amino acid enantiomers can generate structurally rigid reaction products and give rise to greatly enhanced fluorescence. The strategies of this work can be further expanded to develop fluorescent probes for the specific identification of many amino acids of interest. This should facilitate the analysis of chiral amino acids in various applications. The outlook of this research and its comparison with other methods are also discussed.