Aqueous Circularly Polarized Luminescence Induced by Homopolypeptide Self-Assembly

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-asse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Chemical Society 2023-12, Vol.145 (50), p.27282-27294
Main Authors: Jiang, Jinhui, Ma, Fulong, Dong, Ruihua, Zhang, Siwei, Zhang, Zicong, Tan, Haozhe, Cai, Xumin, Qiu, Zijie, Xiong, Yu, Han, Wei, Zhao, Zheng, Tang, Ben Zhong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aqueous solutions
dioxane
Fluorescence
Luminescence
nanorods
Nanostructures
optical isomerism
Peptides
polypeptides
Solvents
tetrahydrofuran
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0002-7863
1520-5126
1520-5126
DOI:10.1021/jacs.3c06769