AIE-Active Supramolecular Assemblies of TPE-DNA Conjugates

Opposite to many chromophores that suffer from aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), aggregation-induced emission (AIE) type chromophores exhibit intense fluorescence and efficient energy transfer in molecular assemblies. That is why aggregation-induced emitters have gained much attention in the fields of optoelectronic devices and the creation of artificial light-harvesting systems among others.[1] Previous work demonstrated light-harvesting in supramolecular vesicles assembled from phenanthrene-DNA conjugates.[2] In this work, the phenanthrenes have been replaced by either E-tetraphenylethylenes (TPEs) (Figure 1A) or Z-TPEs and resulted in the formation of AIE-active supramolecular assemblies. As evidenced by AFM, duplex 1 self-assembles in aqueous medium into spherical objects (Figure 1B). Similar results are also obtained for Z-TPE-modified DNA conjugates. Spectroscopic data as well as physicochemical properties of the supramolecular arrays will be presented and discussed on this poster.