Qualitative/chiral sensing of amino acids by naked-eye fluorescence change based on morphological transformation and hierarchizing in supramolecular assemblies of pyrene-conjugated glycolipids.

Supramolecular assemblies of fluorescent glycolipids exhibited molecular packing rearrangement as well as morphological transformation, in response to amino acid analytes. Naked-eye detectable fluorescence color changes and hydrogel formation as the result of the amplification of the molecular- and nanometer-scaled changes enabled not only qualitative analysis but also chiral sensing of a specific amino acid among 20 amino acids.