Chiral membrane with intrinsic microporosity for enantioselective electrochemical recognition of tryptophan enantiomers

Abstract

Enantioselective recognition and separation of chiral molecules are pivotal in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields due to their distinct biological activities. Drawing inspiration from biological transmembrane systems, we developed a chiral-selective nanofluidic platform by embedding BINOL-derived stereogenic centers into polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs). The resulting (R)-HBIN-Is membrane mimics the stereoselective capabilities of biological transporters, demonstrating a selectivity coefficient of 2.5 for D-tryptophan over L-tryptophan via electrochemical discrimination. This study marks the new application of PIMs in chiral-selective transmembrane transport, offering significant potential for advancing chiral membrane separation technologies in pharmaceutical production and biomedical diagnostics.