In this contribution, I will present our work on using DNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes to probe stereoselective interactions between DNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes and biomolecules. We use enantiopure (+) and (−)(6,5), and (−)(8,3) as well as achiral (11,0) carbon nanotubes wrapped with specific resolving DNA sequences to demonstrate their stereoselective detection of amino acid enantiomers. Furthermore, I will show that stereoselective sensing abilities are retained by dispersions containing a multitude of chiral nanotube structures. The fluorescence response profiles of six different DNA-wrapped carbon nanotube dispersions to nine standard amino acids, and their enantiomers, demonstrate that DNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes are exquisitely sensitive to the stereoconfiguration and side-chain functionality of amino acids in a manner that is dependent on both DNA sequence and nanotube chirality.

Reference: Zeus A. De los Santos, Zhiwei Lin, and Ming Zheng J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c11372