Mass spectrometric detection of enantioselectivity in three-component complexation, copper(ii)-chiral tetradentate ligand-free amino acid in solution.

By using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry coupled with the use of deuterium-labelled quasienantiomers, enantioselective coordination of a free amino acid as the second ligand of a copper(ii) complex with a novel chiral tetradentate ligand was evaluated quantitatively in a short measurement time.