Enantiomeric Recognition and Separation by Chiral Nanoparticles

Abstract

Chiral molecules are stereoselective with regard to specific biological functions. Enantiomers differ considerably in their physiological reactions with the human body. Safeguarding the quality and safety of drugs requires an efficient analytical platform by which to selectively probe chiral compounds to ensure the extraction of single enantiomers. Asymmetric synthesis is a mature approach to the production of single enantiomers; however, it is poorly suited to mass production and allows for only specific enantioselective reactions. Furthermore, it is too expensive and time-consuming for the evaluation of therapeutic drugs in the early stages of development. These limitations have prompted the development of surface-modified nanoparticles using amino acids, chiral organic ligands, or functional groups as chiral selectors applicable to a racemic mixture of chiral molecules. The fact that these combinations can be optimized in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and enantioselectivity makes them ideal for enantiomeric recognition and separation. In chiral resolution, molecules bond selectively to particle surfaces according to homochiral interactions, whereupon an enantiopure compound is extracted from the solution through a simple filtration process. In this review article, we discuss the fabrication of chiral nanoparticles and look at the ways their distinctive surface properties have been adopted in enantiomeric recognition and separation.

Amplified vibrational circular dichroism as a manifestation of the interaction between a water soluble gold nanocluster and cobalt salt

“…4,5 Chiral metal nanoclusters have properties that make them attractive for applications in different domains like enantiomeric separation, enantioselective detection, asymmetric catalysis, pharmaceutical applications and others. [6][7][8][9][10][11] The chirality of metal nanoclusters can be probed by electronic circular dichroism (CD). 12,13 CD spectra are a sensitive probe of the size and structure of the cluster.…”

Self-Assembly of Supramolecular Architectures by the Effect of Amino Acid Residues of Quaternary Ammonium Pillar[5]arenes

“…Chirality is a key factor in the action principles of biologically active macromolecules as well as in the separation processes of enantiomers reaction mixtures [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. In view of this, considerable attention has been paid to the recognition of optically active compounds.…”

Perspective: plasmon antennas for nanoscale chiral chemistry

“…A promising approach is the use of (metal) nanoparticles to separate enantiomers in solution. While several methods rely on the use of Au [15,16] and Ag nanoparticles [17][18][19], these do not engage the plasmon resonances, but rather the functionalization of the metallic surface with chiral or non-chiral ligands [15,17], also exploring the use of the inherent chirality of Au or Ag nanoparticles or clusters [18,16,19] (note a helpful review in [20] on the subject). Superchiral electromagnetic near-fields (that is, the electromagnetic fields with the optical chirality higher than that of a free-propagating CP light) can be induced in the direct proximity of the nanostructures, interacting with the CP or even linearly-polarized light.…”