Janus Microgels-Assisted Dual-Fingerprint Strategy for Enantiomeric Discrimination of Amino Alcohol

An efficient and accurate enantiomeric differentiation strategy for amino alcohol (AA) is crucial in diverse arenas ranging from drug design to disease prevention. However, many approaches suffer from insufficient responsiveness for the discrimination of enantiomers in complexed matrices. Here, we reported hydrogen-bonding-regulated double-fingerprint strategy-based Janus microgels (JMG), PVA-encapsulated gold nanorods (GNRs) and MIL-101(Fe), for accurate and sensitive differentiation of phenylalaninol (Pha) enantiomers. Crucially, distinct SERS signals were witnessed for d- versus l-Pha enantiomers due to stereoselective interactions between the amino moiety of Pha and the carboxyl group of GNRs. Meanwhile, the hydroxyl group of d-/l-Pha interacts with the amide group of MIL-101(Fe) to generate a hydrogen-bonded complex, leading to different fluorescence signal intensities. The omnipotent dual-fingerprint tactic enables discrimination of six types of amino alcohol racemates. Compared with the results acquired by the traditional method, these acquired by JMG-based bimodal assay offer significant advancement in reliability and stability of stereoselective detection. Therefore, the JMG-based sensing platforms offer enormous potential for reliable discrimination of enantiomers and on-site fast screening.