Herbert Gleiter Institute for Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 200 Xiaolingwei, Nanjing, 210094, China.
Nano and Heterogeneous Materials Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 200 Xiaolingwei, Nanjing, 210094, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Nov 15;60(47):25028-25033. doi: 10.1002/anie.202110187. Epub 2021 Oct 21.
Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is one of the powerful tools for the studies of molecular recognition and chiral discrimination. Its efficiency mainly relies on the design of the functional sensitive layer on the electrode surface. However, the organic sensitive layer may easily cause dissipation of oscillation or detachment and weaken the signal transfer during the molecular recognition processes. In this work, we reveal for the first time that the bare metal surface without the organic selector layer has the capability for chiral recognition in the QCM system. During the adsorption of various chiral amino acids, relatively higher selectivity of D-enantiomers on gold (Au) surface was shown by the QCM detection. Based on analyses of the surface crystalline structure and density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate that the chiral nature of Au surface plays an important role in the selective binding of specific D-amino acids. These results may open new insights on chiral detection by QCM system. It will also promote the construction of novel chiral sensing systems with both efficient detection and separation capability.
石英晶体微天平（QCM）是研究分子识别和手性识别的有力工具之一。其效率主要依赖于电极表面功能敏感层的设计。然而，有机敏感层在分子识别过程中可能容易引起振荡耗散或脱落，从而削弱信号传递。在这项工作中，我们首次揭示了在 QCM 系统中，没有有机选择层的裸金属表面具有手性识别能力。通过 QCM 检测，在各种手性氨基酸的吸附过程中，金（Au）表面对 D-对映体表现出相对更高的选择性。基于表面晶体结构和密度泛函理论计算的分析，我们证明了 Au 表面的手性在特定 D-氨基酸的选择性结合中起着重要作用。这些结果可能为 QCM 系统的手性检测提供新的见解。它也将促进具有高效检测和分离能力的新型手性传感系统的构建。
