Environment-Driven Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence in Chiral Guanosine Assemblies for FRET-Active Composites

Abstract

The synthesis of a novel circularly polarized luminescent (CPL)-active hydrogel with superior modulation properties is achieved through the self-assembly of helical G-quartet nanostructures under molecular crowding conditions. In a simulated molecularly crowded environment with polyethylene glycol (PEG), mixtures of 5′-guanine monophosphate (GMP) and guanosine (Gua) form chiral hydrogels, with the chirality being significantly influenced by the concentration of Gua. The chiral hydrogel can induce achiral dyes to exhibit CPL with a dissymmetry factor (g_lum) of up to 10^–2. The incorporated dyes exhibit helical structures at the nanoscale, achieving full-color CPL, and demonstrate dual CPL characteristics through the Förster resonance energy transfer mechanism. The processed chiral coassembled hydrogels into freestanding films can distinguish between the left- and right-handed circularly polarized (LCP and RCP) light, highlighting potential applications in chiral light source detectors, which paves new avenues for the design of chiral functional nanomaterials and their applications in chiral detection.