Center for AIE Research, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518061, China.
College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
J Am Chem Soc. 2023 Dec 20;145(50):27282-27294. doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c06769. Epub 2023 Dec 8.
Remarkable advances have been achieved in solution self-assembly of polypeptides from the perspective of nanostructures, mechanisms, and applications. Despite the intrinsic chirality of polypeptides, the promising generation of aqueous circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) based on their self-assembly has been rarely reported due to the weak fluorescence of most polypeptides and the indeterminate self-assembly mechanism. Here, we propose a facile strategy for achieving aqueous CPL based on the self-assembly of simple homopolypeptides modified with a terminal group featuring both twisted intramolecular charge transfer and aggregation-induced emission properties. A morphology-dependent CPL can be observed under different self-assembly conditions by altering the solvents. A nanotoroid-dispersed aqueous solution with detectable CPL can be obtained by using tetrahydrofuran as a good solvent for the self-assembly, which is attributed to the involvement of the terminal group in the chiral environment formed by the homopolypeptide chains. However, such a chiral packing mode cannot be realized in nanorods self-assembled from dioxane, resulting in an inactive CPL phenomenon. Furthermore, CPL signals can be greatly amplified by co-assembly of homopolypeptides with the achiral small molecule derived from the terminal group. This work not only provides a pathway to construct aqueous CPL-active homopolypeptide nanomaterials but also reveals a potential mechanism in the self-assembly for chiral production, transfer, and amplification in polypeptide-based nanostructures.
从纳米结构、机制和应用的角度来看,多肽的溶液自组装已经取得了显著的进展。尽管多肽具有内在的手性,但由于大多数多肽的荧光较弱,以及自组装机制不确定,基于其自组装的有前途的水溶液圆偏振发光(CPL)的产生很少有报道。在这里,我们提出了一种通过末端基团同时具有扭曲的分子内电荷转移和聚集诱导发射性质的简单均聚多肽的自组装来实现水溶液 CPL 的简便策略。通过改变溶剂,可以在不同的自组装条件下观察到形态依赖性 CPL。通过使用四氢呋喃作为自组装的良溶剂,可以获得具有可检测 CPL 的纳米环分散的水溶液,这归因于末端基团参与了由均聚多肽链形成的手性环境。然而,在二氧六环自组装的纳米棒中,无法实现这种手性堆积模式,导致 CPL 现象不活跃。此外,通过均聚多肽与末端基团衍生的非手性小分子的共组装,可以大大放大 CPL 信号。这项工作不仅为构建水溶液 CPL 活性均聚多肽纳米材料提供了一条途径,而且还揭示了在多肽基纳米结构中手性产生、传递和放大的自组装中的潜在机制。
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