Mimicking the Energy Funnel of the Photosynthetic Unit Using a Dendrimer‐Dye Supramolecular Assembly

Photosynthesis involves light‐harvesting complexes where an array of antenna pigment channels the absorbed solar energy to the reaction centre of a photosystem. This work reports a supramolecular dendrimer‐dye assembly that mimics the natural light‐harvesting mechanism. A dendrimeric molecule based...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemistry, an Asian journal an Asian journal, 2021-11, Vol.16 (21), p.3481-3486
Main Authors: Rama Krishna, V. Siva, Adak, Soumen, Jana, Palash, Bheemireddy, Varun, Bandyopadhyay, Subhajit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggregates
Antenna arrays
Assembly
Chemical compounds
Chemistry
Coumarin
dendrimer
Dyes
Energy
Energy transfer
Fluorescence
light-harvesting
Micelles
Molecular dynamics
Natural lighting
non-covalent interactions
Photosynthesis
Resonance energy transfer
self-assembly
Solar energy
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Photosynthesis involves light‐harvesting complexes where an array of antenna pigment channels the absorbed solar energy to the reaction centre of a photosystem. This work reports a supramolecular dendrimer‐dye assembly that mimics the natural light‐harvesting mechanism. A dendrimeric molecule based on two‐fluorophores has been constructed with three coumarin units at the end of three long arms and a 7‐diethylaminocoumarin unit at the interior. The molecule self‐aggregates in water into spherical micelles, which can encapsulate a rose‐bengal dye (RB). On excitation, peripheral coumarin units shuttled the energy to the loaded RB dye reaction center via a two‐step cascade resonance energy transfer (RET). The energy absorbed in the periphery is funnelled efficiently, resulting in a strong emission from the dye that resembles an energy funnel. The energy transfer cascade has been studied with both steady‐state and time‐resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. Molecular dynamics simulations of the self‐assembled aggregates in water were also in agreement with the experimental observations. A synthetic energy funnel: A dendrimeric system with donor‐acceptor fluorophores forms micellar aggregates with an encapsulated rose bengal dye. The dye‐micellar aggregate displays a sequential energy transfer cascade from multiple donors to the rose bengal acceptor via intermediate acceptors mimicking the light‐harvesting process of the bacteriochlorophylls.
ISSN:1861-4728
1861-471X
DOI:10.1002/asia.202100886