Chiral
recognition of amino acid enantiomers is critical in enhancing
drug efficacy, detecting disease markers, and understanding physiological
processes. Enantioselective fluorescent identification has gained
attention among researchers due to its nontoxicity, easy synthesis,
and biocompatibility. In this work, chiral fluorescent carbon dots
(CCDs) were produced through a hydrothermal reaction followed by chiral
modification. The fluorescent probe, Fe3+-CCDs (F-CCDs),
was constructed by complexing Fe3+ with CCDs to differentiate
between the enantiomers of tryptophan (Trp) and determine ascorbic
acid (AA) through an “on–off–on” response.
It is worth noting that l-Trp can greatly enhance the fluorescence
of F-CCDs with a blue shift, whereas d-Trp does not have
any effect on the fluorescence of F-CCDs. F-CCDs showed a low limit
of detection (LOD) for l-Trp and l-AA, with an LOD
of 3.98 and 6.28 μM, respectively. The chiral recognition mechanism
of tryptophan enantiomers using F-CCDs was proposed based on the interaction
force between the enantiomers and F-CCDs, as confirmed by UV–vis
absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations.
The determination of l-AA by F-CCDs was also confirmed through
the binding of l-AA to Fe3+ to release CCDs, as
seen in UV–vis absorption spectra and time-resolved fluorescence
decays. In addition, AND and OR gates were constructed based on the
different responses of CCDs to Fe3+ and Fe3+-CCDs to l-Trp/d-Trp, demonstrating the significance
of molecular-level logic gates in drug detection and clinical diagnosis.