Decorated traditional cellulose with nanoscale chiral metal–organic frameworks for enhanced enantioselective capture

Herein, a rapid approach toward the size/morphology-controlled synthesis of [Cu(L-mal)(bipy)·2H₂O] (CuLBH) was developed by adjusting the concentrations of 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and copper ions. The chiral separation efficiency test indicated that the nano-diameter CuLBH exhibited better selective potential towards (±)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethanol (NE) by providing more fully exposed recognition sites. In order to further improve the selectivity for NE enantiomers and avoid the aggregation of MOF nanoparticles, the nanosized CuLBH-decorated carboxylated cellulose (CC) composite CC–CuLBH was designed by controlling the ratio of the solvent and Cu²⁺, which exhibited much higher enantioselectivity than those of pristine CC and even nano CuLBH.