Chiral molecules have recently been shown to exhibit enantiospecific interactions with magnetized ferromagnetic surfaces that depend on the handedness of the molecule and the magnetization state of the surface. The enantiospecificity arises from spin constraints associated with the chiral induced spin selectivity effect and has since been used in proof-of-principle studies for enantiomeric resolution. However, in order to assess the fidelity of this approach for real-world applications, a greater understanding of the fundamental principles that govern the enantiospecific interaction between molecules and magnetic surfaces is still required. This work uses electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance techniques to study this interaction for cysteine. and its derivatives; in particular, we report on adsorption isotherm measurements to determine the Gibbs free energy, and chronoamperometry to study the time-dependent adsorption and desorption kinetics. The experiments show that the asymmetry in adsorption behavior with magnetic field is a kinetically controlled process and does not arise from thermodynamic stabilization. In addition, variability in the solution conditions, e.g. pH and isotope, demonstrate that the charge state and geometry of the adsorbate, including its interaction with the solvent, are important parameters that affect the enantiospecificity.

Enantiospecificity of cysteine adsorption on a ferromagnetic surface

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