Title
Continuously-tunable fluorescent polypeptides through a polymer-assisted assembly strategy
Author
Guodong Liang, Feng Ren, Haiyang Gao, Qing Wu, Fangming Zhu, Ben Zhong Tang
Year
2016
Journal
Polymer Chemistry
Abstract
Luminogenic materials with tunable fluorescence emission have attracted increasing interest due to their broad applications. Here, we develop a versatile method to continuously tune the packing and fluorescence of organic chromophores through a polymer-assisted assembly (PAA) strategy, affording a catalog of fluorescent polymers with continuously-tunable fluorescence emission. Polypeptides decorated with tetraphenylethene (PBLG-TPE) were synthesized by combining ring-opening polymerization with a post-modification procedure. PBLG-TPE showed hexagonally-packed structures comprised of PBLG α-helices with TPE moieties trapped inside. We demonstrated that the fluorescence of PBLG-TPE could be tuned in a controlled manner by regulating TPE fraction, molecular weight, and temperature, associated with the distance between adjacent PBLG α-helices. Such a polymer-assisted assembly offers a new method to tune the packing and fluorescence of organic chromophores, and a family of fluorescent polymers with continuously-tunable fluorescence emission.
Instrument
J-720
Keywords
Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Polymers, Materials