Continuous intra- and intermolecular energy transfer in light-harvesting gels from natural amino acids-based dendrons

• Published in: Tetrahedron letters Vol. 51; no. 40; pp. 5336 - 5340
• Main Authors: Li, Wu-Song, Teng, Ming-Jun, Jia, Xin-Ru, Wei, Yen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: OXFORD Elsevier Ltd 06.10.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Amino acids; Chemistry; Chemistry, Organic; Dendron; Emission; Energy transfer; Gel; Gels; Glutamic acid; Glycine; Light-harvesting; Physical Sciences; Residues; Science & Technology; Tetrahedrons; Amino acids; Light-harvesting; Dendron; Energy transfer; Gel; CHROMOPHORE; BEHAVIOR; PORPHYRINS; ORGANOGELS; FLUORESCENCE; PHOTOINDUCED ELECTRON; DENDRIMER; ARCHITECTURE; SUPRAMOLECULAR HYDROGELS; ASSOCIATION
• ISSN: 0040-4039; 1873-3581
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2010.08.012

The gels and co-gels from glycine ( Gly) and glutamic acid ( Glu)-based dendrons with either tyrosine ( Tyr) or tryptophan ( Trp), two of the luminescent amino acid residues in natural proteins, at the focal point were reported. Such gels showed efficient light-harvesting and energy transfer properties. Specially, a high efficient energy transfer (ET) process and a light-harvesting in the co-gel system were achieved. Moreover, luminescent gels with tunable emission ranging from blue to green were also observed owing to the cascade intra- and intermolecular ET from dendritic gelators to the guest molecules (PDNS) in the host–guest gel system (co-gel with PDNS as the guest molecule), which mimicked the natural light-harvesting systems. The gels and co-gels from glycine ( Gly) and glutamic acid ( Glu)-based dendrons with either tyrosine ( Tyr) or tryptophan ( Trp), two of the luminescent amino acid residues in natural proteins, at the focal point were prepared ( Tyr- AB 4 and Trp- AB 4 ). It was found that such gels, especially the co-gels from Tyr- AB 4 / Trp- AB 4 , showed a high efficient energy transfer (ET) and light-harvesting behaviors. Moreover, luminescent gels with tunable emission ranging from blue to green were also observed owing to the cascade intra- and intermolecular ET from dendritic gelators to the guest molecules ( PDNS) in the host–guest gel sample (co-gel with PDNS as the guest molecule), which mimicked the natural light-harvesting systems.