Quantitation of enantiospecific adsorption on chiral nanoparticles from optical rotation

Au nanoparticles modified with enantiomerically pure d- or l-cysteine have been shown to serve as enantioselective adsorbents of R- and S-propylene oxide. A simple adsorption model and accompanying experimental protocol have been developed to enable optical rotation measurements to be analyzed for quantitative determination of the ratios of the enantiospecific adsorption equilibrium constants of chiral species on the surfaces of chiral nanoparticles, KLS/KDS = KDR/KLR. This analysis is robust in the sense that it obviates the need to measure the absolute surface area of the absorbent nanoparticles, a quantity that is somewhat difficult to obtain accurately. This analysis has been applied to optical rotation data obtained from solutions of R- and S-propylene oxide, in varying concentration ratios, with d- and l-cysteine coated Au nanoparticles, in varying concentration ratios.