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

El-Zubir, Osama; Martinez, Pablo Rojas; Dura, Gema; Al-Mahamad, Lamia L.G.; Pope, Thomas; Penfold, Thomas J.; Mackenzie, Lewis E.; Pal, Robert; Mosely, Jackie; Cucinotta, Fabio; McGarry, Liam F.; Horrocks, Benjamin R.; Houlton, Andrew

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.

Citation

El-Zubir, O., Martinez, P. R., Dura, G., Al-Mahamad, L. L., Pope, T., Penfold, T. J., Mackenzie, L. E., Pal, R., Mosely, J., Cucinotta, F., McGarry, L. F., Horrocks, B. R., & Houlton, A. (2022). Circularly polarised luminescence in an RNA-based homochiral, self-repairing, coordination polymer hydrogel. Journal of Materials Chemistry C Materials for optical and electronic devices, 10(18), https://doi.org/10.1039/d2tc00366j

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 11, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 5, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry C
• Print ISSN: 2050-7526
• Electronic ISSN: 2050-7534
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 18
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d2tc00366j
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1199577