A Liquid–Liquid Interfacial Strategy for Construction of Electroactive Chiral Covalent–Organic Frameworks with the Aim to Enlarge the Testing Scope of Chiral Electroanalysis

Although electroactive chiral covalent–organic frameworks (CCOFs) are considered an ideal platform for chiral electroanalysis, they are rarely reported due to the difficult selection of suitable precursors. Here, a facile strategy of liquid–liquid interfacial polymerization was carried out to synthesize the target electroactive CCOFs Ph-Py+-(S,S)-DPEA·PF6– and Ph-Py+-(R,R)-DPEA·PF6–. That is, a trivalent Zincke salt (4,4′,4″-(benzene-1,3,5-triyl)tris(1-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)pyridin-1-ium)) trichloride (Ph-Py+-NO2) and enantiopure 1,2-diphenylethylenediamine (DPEA) were dissolved in water and chloroform, respectively. The Zincke reaction occurs at the interface, resulting in uniform porosity. As expected, the cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry measurements showed that the tripyridinium units of the CCOFs afforded obvious electrochemical responses. When Ph-Py+-(S,S)-DPEA·PF6– was modified onto the surface of a glassy carbon electrode as a chiral sensor, the molecules, which included tryptophan, aspartic acid, serine, tyrosine, glutamic acid, mandelic acid, and malic acid, were enantioselectively recognized in the response of the peak current. Very importantly, the discriminative electrochemical signals were derived from Ph-Py+-(S,S)-DPEA·PF6–. The best peak current ratios between l- and d-enantiomers were in the range of 1.31–2.68. Besides, a good linear relationship between peak currents and enantiomeric excess (ee) values was established, which was successfully harnessed to determine the ee values for unknown samples. In a word, the current work provides new insight and potential of electroactive CCOFs for enantioselective sensing in a broad range.