Chiral Discrimination By Porphyrin Supramolecular Aggregates Based Chemical Sensors

Abstract

The study of the formation of porphyrin aggregates characterized by supramolecular chirality is an important issue amenable to wide applications. One approach to prepare these architectures takes advantage by the presence of chiral substituents on the periphery of the macrocycles acting as specific chiral effectors during the molecular recognition event. We have exploited a tetraphenylporphyrin bearing a peripheral proline group in ethanol–water solvent mixtures (Figure 1 a); the aggregation led to the formation of extended J-type aggregates, featuring supramolecular chirality. The aggregates have been grafted onto ZnO nanoparticles and then QMB sensor surfaces have been coated with a thick film of such hybrid materials. Sensing properties of such hybrid materials have been extensively studied and results show that they have promising features for the development of reliable and efficient sensors based on the implementation of large chiral surfaces. Figure 1