Facile synthesis of the uryl pendant binaphthol aldehyde and its selective fluorescent recognition of tryptophan

Abstract

An easy and convenient synthetic route to (S)-2-hydroxy-2′-(3- phenyluryl-benzyl)-1,1′-binaphthyl-3-carboxaldehyde (1), capable of recognizing tryptophan by fluorescence has been developed. The binol carboxaldehyde 1 exhibited a high selectivity to L-tryptophan over other examined L-α-amino acids such as alanine, phenylalanine, glutamine, arginine, lysine, serine, threonine, aspartat, valine, histidine and cysteine, with a fluorescence "turn-on" signal. In addition, 1 displayed chiral discrimination with good enantioselectivity toward L-tryptophan over D-tryptophan through different fluorescence enhancement factors.