Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
Nat Commun. 2018 Aug 13;9(1):3217. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05568-9.
Quantum confined materials have been extensively studied for photoluminescent applications. Due to intrinsic limitations of low biocompatibility and challenging modulation, the utilization of conventional inorganic quantum confined photoluminescent materials in bio-imaging and bio-machine interface faces critical restrictions. Here, we present aromatic cyclo-dipeptides that dimerize into quantum dots, which serve as building blocks to further self-assemble into quantum confined supramolecular structures with diverse morphologies and photoluminescence properties. Especially, the emission can be tuned from the visible region to the near-infrared region (420 nm to 820 nm) by modulating the self-assembly process. Moreover, no obvious cytotoxic effect is observed for these nanostructures, and their utilization for in vivo imaging and as phosphors for light-emitting diodes is demonstrated. The data reveal that the morphologies and optical properties of the aromatic cyclo-dipeptide self-assemblies can be tuned, making them potential candidates for supramolecular quantum confined materials providing biocompatible alternatives for broad biomedical and opto-electric applications.
量子限制材料在光致发光应用中得到了广泛研究。由于传统无机量子限制光致发光材料的固有局限性，如低生物相容性和难以调节，其在生物成像和生物机器接口中的应用受到了极大的限制。在这里，我们提出了芳香族环二肽，它们可以自组装成量子点，作为构建块进一步自组装成具有多种形貌和光致发光性质的量子限制超分子结构。特别是，通过调节自组装过程，可以将发射从可见光区域调谐到近红外区域（420nm 到 820nm）。此外，这些纳米结构没有明显的细胞毒性，并且已经证明它们可以用于体内成像和作为发光二极管的磷光体。这些数据表明，芳香族环二肽自组装的形态和光学性质可以进行调节，使它们成为超分子量子限制材料的潜在候选材料，为广泛的生物医学和光电应用提供了生物相容性的替代方案。
