Development of a chiral electrochemical sensor based on copper-amino acid mercaptide nanorods for enantioselective discrimination of tryptophan enantiomers.

Chirality is an important property of nature and it regulates fundamental phenomena in nature and organisms. Here, we develop a chiral electrochemical sensor based on copper-amino acid mercaptide nanorods (L-CuCys NRs) to discriminate tryptophan (Trp) isomers. The chiral L-CuCys NRs are prepared in alkaline solution based on the facile coordination reaction between the sulfhydryl groups of L-Cys and copper ions.