Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal Bypass Road, Bhopal 462 066, Madhya Pradesh, India.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2021 Apr 8;12(13):3266-3273. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00245. Epub 2021 Mar 25.
To explore the underlying formation mechanism of luminescent metal nanoclusters (NCs) using a small moiety such as amino acids (outside the milieu of a protein environment) as templates, herein we report blue-emitting copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) using l-tyrosine (l-Tyr) as a capping agent as well as a reducing agent. We also demonstrate the effect of an in situ fibrillation of Tyr on the luminescence and structural properties of NCs. Fluorescence studies along with microscopic imaging revealed the rapid formation of a dityrosine (di-Tyr) moiety in an alkaline medium followed by an aggregated " leaf"-like fibrillar pattern along with CuNCs. Our present investigation delineates the role played by π-π interactions in the formation of the fibrillar structures. We substantiated the fundamentals of using a small molecule of a large ligand that can serve as a template and also show how these NCs once formed destroy the fibrils of di-Tyr as a function of time.
为了使用氨基酸等小分子（在蛋白质环境之外）作为模板来探索发光金属纳米团簇（NCs）的潜在形成机制，本文报告了使用 l-酪氨酸（l-Tyr）作为封端剂和还原剂的蓝色发光铜纳米团簇（CuNCs）。我们还展示了 Tyr 的原位原纤化对 NCs 的发光和结构性质的影响。荧光研究和显微镜成像揭示了在碱性介质中快速形成二酪氨酸（di-Tyr）部分，随后形成具有 CuNCs 的聚集的“叶”状原纤结构。我们目前的研究描绘了π-π相互作用在原纤结构形成中的作用。我们证实了使用可以作为模板的大配体小分子的基本原理，并展示了这些 NCs 一旦形成，随着时间的推移，如何破坏 di-Tyr 的原纤维。
