Circularly polarised luminescence in an RNA-based homochiral, self-repairing, coordination polymer hydrogel

Osama El-Zubir, Pablo Martinez, Lamia Al-Mahamad, Thomas Pope, Thomas Penfold, Lewis Mackenzie, Robert Pal, Jackie Mosely, Fabio Cucinotta, Liam McGarry, Benjamin Horrocks, Andrew Houlton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The aqueous equimolar reaction of Ag(I) ions with the thionucleoside enantiomer (-)6-thioguanosine, ((-)6tGH), yields a one-dimensional coordination polymer {Ag(-)tG}n, the self-assembly of which generates left-handed helical chains. The resulting helicity induces an enhanced chiro-optical response compared to the parent ligand. DFT calculations indicate that this enhancement is due to delocalisation of the excited state along the helical chains, with 7 units being required to converge the calculated CD spectra. At concentrations >15 mmol l^-1 reactions form a sample-spanning hydrogel which shows self-repair capabilities with instantaneous recovery in which the dynamic reversibility of the coordination chains appears to play a role. The resulting gel exhibits circularly polarised luminescence (CPL) with a large dissymmetry factor of -0.07 +/- 0.01 at 735 nm, a phenomenon not previously observed for this class of coordination polymer
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7329-7335
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry C
Volume18
Early online date20 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 May 2022

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© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022

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