Electrochemical Polymerization Induced Chirality Fixation of Crystalline Pillararene-Based Polymer and Its Application in Interfacial Chiral Sensing

作者：Yang, Jie; Zeng, Qiang^*; Wang, Lishi^*

来源：Analytical Chemistry, 2021, 93(29): 9965-9969.

DOI：10.1021/acs.analchem.1c01941

• OXIDE
• ORIENTATION
• GRAPHENE

A new strategy has been developed for the direct chirality fixation, which is induced by electrochemical polymerization, of macrocyclic hosts pillar[5]arene. Taking advantage of electrochemical polymerization, thiophene-modified pillar[5]arene monomers (Th-P[5]A) have been regularly arranged under the action of an electric field to form chiral nanofiber-like crystalline pillar[5]arene-based polymers (poly-ThP[5]A), showing a significant circular dichroism (CD) signal. With the active photochemical properties, poly-Th-P[5]A is first used as a photoelectrochemical (PEC) chiral sensor for the identification and determination of L- and D-ascorbic acid (L-AA, D-AA) without adding any extra photoactive probes. Importantly, the chiral recognition between poly-Th-P[5]A and L-AA also triggers a polarity conversion for the photocurrent of the polymer, and it greatly results in a broad chiral detection range for L-AA, crossing 6 orders of magnitude. This work provides a promotional strategy for building a PEC chiral recognition platform based on pillararenes.