Fluorescence enantioselective sensing of lactic acid enantiomers by Zn-MOC@CQDs with double chiral building blocks

Chiral carbon quantum dots (CQDs) with –SH, –NH 2 functional groups were grafted onto a metal–organic cage (Zn-MOC) with unsaturated metal sites through coordination bond, and then a novel bichiral composite Zn-MOC@CQDs was constructed for the chiral discrimination of LA enantiomers. Zn-MOC@CQDs exhibited a high fluorescence detection sensitivity for L -LA instead of D -LA, and the enantioselectivity coefficient for LA enantiomers was 2.34. Zn-MOC@CQDs exhibited more excellent enantioselectivity than the single components of CQDs and Zn-MOC, and the key reason may be the chiral synergistic effect between the different chiral building blocks.