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Nano Research 2023, 16(10): 12092-12097 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5331-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 29 December 2022

Bio-organic adaptive photonic crystals enable supramolecular solvatochromism

Show Author's Information Jiahao Zhang1,2,3,§,  Yan Zhang2,§,  Yancheng Wang1,3,  Sigal Rencus-Lazar4,  Deqing Mei1,3,  Ehud Gazit4,5( ),  Kai Tao1,2,3( )
State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Zhejiang-Israel Joint Laboratory of Self-Assembling Functional Materials, Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Centre, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311200, China
Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology of Zhejiang Province, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel

§ Jiahao Zhang and Yan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
peptide nucleic acids, molecular manufacturing, supramolecular photonic crystals, solvatochromic effects, adaptivity
Topics:
Nanosensors Photonic crystalsSelf assembly
Cite this article:
Zhang J, Zhang Y, Wang Y, et al. Bio-organic adaptive photonic crystals enable supramolecular solvatochromism. Nano Research, 2023, 16(10): 12092-12097. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5331-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Photonic crystals (PCs) exhibit promising structural coloration properties and possess extensive application prospects in diverse optical fields. However, state-of-the-art inorganic or polymeric PCs show limited adaptivity as their configurations are fixed once formed. Herein, bio-organic adaptive PCs are fabricated via drop-casting of amphiphilic guanine-based peptide nucleic acid self-assembled microspheres. The high formation activation energy of up to 81.8 kJ·mol−1 suggests that the self-assembly step dominates the entire process. Therefore, the configurations along with the structural coloration of the supramolecular PCs are sensitive to self-assembly influencing parameters, showing temperature-encoded structural color evolution and solvent polarity-dependent solvatochromism. Our findings demonstrate that the supramolecular PCs are adaptive, thus showing promising potential for detection of organic solvents of different polarities in a visual and real-time manner for environmental protection or optical applications.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Bio-organic adaptive photonic crystals enable supramolecular solvatochromism

Show Author's information Jiahao Zhang1,2,3,§, Yan Zhang2,§, Yancheng Wang1,3, Sigal Rencus-Lazar4, Deqing Mei1,3, Ehud Gazit4,5( ), Kai Tao1,2,3( )
State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Zhejiang-Israel Joint Laboratory of Self-Assembling Functional Materials, Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Centre, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311200, China
Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology of Zhejiang Province, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel

§ Jiahao Zhang and Yan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Photonic crystals (PCs) exhibit promising structural coloration properties and possess extensive application prospects in diverse optical fields. However, state-of-the-art inorganic or polymeric PCs show limited adaptivity as their configurations are fixed once formed. Herein, bio-organic adaptive PCs are fabricated via drop-casting of amphiphilic guanine-based peptide nucleic acid self-assembled microspheres. The high formation activation energy of up to 81.8 kJ·mol−1 suggests that the self-assembly step dominates the entire process. Therefore, the configurations along with the structural coloration of the supramolecular PCs are sensitive to self-assembly influencing parameters, showing temperature-encoded structural color evolution and solvent polarity-dependent solvatochromism. Our findings demonstrate that the supramolecular PCs are adaptive, thus showing promising potential for detection of organic solvents of different polarities in a visual and real-time manner for environmental protection or optical applications.

Keywords: peptide nucleic acids, molecular manufacturing, supramolecular photonic crystals, solvatochromic effects, adaptivity

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 11 October 2022
Revised: 09 November 2022
Accepted: 15 November 2022
Published: 29 December 2022
Issue date: October 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2022YFE0100800) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52175551). The authors thank the members of the laboratories for helpful discussions.

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