Chiral Recognition of Carnitine Enantiomers Using Graphene Oxide-Modified Cadmium Telluride Quantum Dots

Abstract

Carnitine (CA) is a chiral amino acid and mostly comes from meat and dairy products. CA cannot be found in fruits, vegetables, or other plants, so vegetarians are deficient in CA. CA exists in the form of D-carnitine (D-CA) and L-carnitine (L-CA); only L-carnitine has biological activity. L-CA promotes the oxidation of fatty acids and then causes the effect of weight loss. In this study, the fluorescence probe was established by using graphene oxide-modified cadmium telluride (CdTe) QDs (GO-CdTe QDs) for the chiral recognition of carnitine enantiomers. GO-CdTe QDs present fluorescence. D-CA enhances the fluorescence spectral signal of the GO-CdTe QDs system, while L-CA weakens its spectral signal. Based on this phenomenon, we determined D-carnitine and L-carnitine.