Double helical π-aggregate nanoarchitectonics for amplified circularly polarized luminescence

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 1710 - 9
• Main Authors: Wang, Yuan, Niu, Dian, Ouyang, Guanghui, Liu, Minghua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 31.03.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 140/58; 147/135; 639/301/923/966; 639/638/298/398; 639/638/541/966; Aggregates; Amino acids; Arrays; Chirality; Chromophores; Circular polarization; Couplings; Crystal structure; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Double-stranded; Enantiomers; Excitons; Fabrication; Figure of merit; Fluorescence; Functional materials; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen bonds; Luminescence; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Self-assembly; Single crystals
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29396-0

The canonical double helical π-stacked array of base pairs within DNA interior has inspired the interest in supramolecular double helical architectures with advanced electronic, magnetic and optical functions. Here, we report a selective-recognized and chirality-matched co-assembly strategy for the fabrication of fluorescent π-amino acids into double helical π-aggregates, which show exceptional strong circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). The single crystal structure of the optimal combination of co-assemblies shows that the double-stranded helical organization of these π-amino acids is cooperatively assisted by both CH-π and hydrogen-bond arrays with chirality match. The well-defined spatial arrangement of the π-chromophores could effectively suppress the non-radiative decay pathways and facilitate chiral exciton couplings, leading to superior CPL with a strong figure of merit ( g lum  = 0.14 and QY = 0.76). Our findings might open a new door for developing DNA-inspired chiroptical materials with prominent properties by enantioselective co-assembly initiated double helical π-aggregation. Synthesized or self-assembled helical architectures advance the development of chiral functional materials. Here the authors report a selective-recognized and chirality-matched co-assembly strategy for the fabrication of fluorescent π-amino acids into double helical π-aggregates with exceptional strong circularly polarized luminescence