Cyclodextrin-Based Supramolecular Hydrogel as a Selective Chiral Adsorption/Separation Platform for Tryptophan Enantiomers
Yin-Xing Yan, Yi Zhang, Yong Chen, Yu Liu
Abstract
A supramolecular hydrogel based on noncovalent interactions has the advantages of specific recognition, stimuli responsiveness, and environmental friendliness. The construction of supramolecular hydrogels with chiral recognition properties by simple methods has received tremendous attention. In this paper, a supramolecular hybrid hydrogel was constructed by combining Cu2+-modified β-cyclodextrin (Cu-β-CD) with inorganic clay through electrostatic interactions. Significantly, the resultant hybrid hydrogel could selectively adsorb tryptophan against some other amino acids, and the maximum adsorption quantum of the hybrid hydrogel toward l-tryptophan (l-Trp) was 6.67 times than that toward d-tryptophan (d-Trp). Therefore, the supramolecular hydrogel could act as a selective adsorption and separation platform for tryptophan enantiomers and have great application prospects in the chiral separation of amino acids.