(Nat. Commun.) Light-Fueled Transient Supramolecular Assemblies in Water as Fluorescence Modulators
writer：Chen, X.; Hou, X.; Bisoyi, H. K.; Feng, W.; Cao, Q.; Huang, S.; Yang, H.*; Chen, D.*; Li, Q.*
keywords：Supramolecular chemistry
source：期刊
specific source：Nature Communications, 2021, 12, 4993.
Issue time：2021年
Dissipative self-assembly, which requires a continuous supply of fuel to maintain the
assembled states far from equilibrium, is the foundation of biological systems. Among a
variety of fuels, light, the original fuel of natural dissipative self-assembly, is fundamentally
important but remains a challenge to introduce into artificial dissipative self-assemblies.
Here, we report an artificial dissipative self-assembly system that is constructed from lightinduced amphiphiles. Such dissipative supramolecular assembly is easily performed using
protonated sulfonato-merocyanine and chitosan based molecular and macromolecular
components in water. Light irradiation induces the assembly of supramolecular nanoparticles,
which spontaneously disassemble in the dark due to thermal back relaxation of the molecular
switch. Owing to the presence of light-induced amphiphiles and the thermal dissociation
mechanism, the lifetimes of these transient supramolecular nanoparticles are highly sensitive
to temperature and light power and range from several minutes to hours. By incorporating
various fluorophores into transient supramolecular nanoparticles, the processes of
aggregation-induced emission and aggregation-caused quenching, along with periodic variations in fluorescent color over time, have been demonstrated. Transient supramolecular
assemblies, which act as fluorescence modulators, can also function in human hepatocellular
cancer cells.