Simultaneous analysis of amino acids based on discriminative 19F NMR spectroscopy

[Display omitted] •oTFMBA acts as a highly sensitive chemosensor for simultaneous analysis of 19 AAs in a complex mixture.•12 AAs in the human urine sample were unambiguously identified.•The detection limit for AAs reaches 5.83 μM.•This method shows powerful discriminative and detective abilities. The simultaneous analysis of amino acids (AAs) is crucial for human health, diagnosis and treatment of disease, and nutritional quality evaluation in foodstuffs. Here, we establish an easy and rapid method for the simultaneous analysis of AAs using a single reagent 2-(trifluoromethyl)benzaldehyde (oTFMBA) based on spectral-separation-enabled 19F NMR spectroscopy. oTFMBA, a highly sensitive chemosensor, is capable of analyzing 19 proteinogenic AAs or non-amino acid amines (non-AAs) in a complex mixture by adjusting the pH in a toilless way. The 19F signals of oTFMBA-labeled AAs are distributed over a wide range of ∼ 0.7 ppm, demonstrating oTFMBA with higher resolution for simultaneous analysis of AAs compared to the o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) method (