Chiral Luminescent Sensor for Enantiomer Discrimination

Abstract

Chiral recognition is a foundation in pharmaceutical and health sciences, particularly for the selective detection of enantiomers in chiral drugs. Over the past 5 years, significant progress has been made in developing chiral fluorescent sensors with improved sensitivity, selectivity, and biocompatibility. This review highlights the structural design, functionalization strategies, and sensing mechanisms of representative systems, including carbon-based quantum dots (CQDs, chiral carbon dots [CCDs], and graphene quantum dots [GQDs]), metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and composite nanomaterials. Notable advances include graphene quantum dots functionalized with D-cysteine for morphine enantiomer discrimination, CdSe/ZnS QDs modified with L-pyroglutamic acid derivatives for stereoselective amino acid detection, Zn-MOC@CQDs composites enabling enantioselective lactic acid sensing, and Eu-BTB@D-carnitine MOFs for enhanced fluorescence-based recognition. More recent developments, such as BINOL-derived probes and carbazole-based sensors, demonstrate high enantioselectivity and ultralow detection limits in amino acid sensing. Compared with earlier reviews, this article emphasizes the integration of hybrid nanostructures and multifunctional composites as next-generation sensing platforms, bridging fluorescence, electrochemiluminescence, and coordination chemistry approaches. The progress discussed herein underscores how the rational design of chiral nanomaterials is shaping precise enantiomer discrimination technologies, with potential for real-world applications in drug analysis, biosensing, and food quality monitoring.

Keywords: chiral discrimination; chiral nanocomposites; enantioselective sensing; fluorescence; metal–organic frameworks; nanosensors.