The understanding of structure–function relationships within synthetic biomimetic systems is a fundamental challenge in chemistry. Herein we report the direct correlation between the structure of short peptoid ligands—N‐substituted glycine oligomers incorporating 2,2′‐bipyridine groups—varied in their monomer sequence, and the photoluminescence of RuII centers coordinated by these ligands. Based on circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy we demonstrate that while helical peptoids do not affect the fluorescence of the embedded RuII chromophore, unstructured peptoids lead to its significant decay. Transmittance electron microscopy (TEM) revealed significant differences in the arrangements of metal‐bound helical versus unstructured peptoids, suggesting that only the latter can have through‐space interactions with the ruthenium dye leading to its quenching. High‐resolution TEM enabled the remarkable direct imaging of singular ruthenium‐bound peptoids and bundles, supporting our explanation for structure‐depended quenching. Moreover, this correlation allowed us to fine‐tune the luminescence properties of the complexes simply by modifying the sequence of their peptoid ligands. Finally, we also describe the chiral properties of these Ru–peptoids and demonstrate that remote chiral induction from the peptoids backbone to the ruthenium center is only possible when the peptoids are both chiral and helical.
Assemblies of nanoparticles (NPs) have been broadly used for the construction of materials with unique spectroscopic and chiral properties for applications in various scientific disciplines such as sensing, bio-nanotechnology and medicine. Mediating the aggregation of NPs by synthetic biomimetic oligomers, namely, DNA, PNA, peptides and peptide mimics, rather than by small organic molecules has been shown to produce interesting supramolecular structures and enable the combination of the biocompatibility of the mediators and the spectroscopic properties of the NPs. Yet, the key to using this powerful approach for designing new functional materials is to understand the NPs aggregation patterns induced by biopolymers and biomimetic oligomers. Herein we describe the important developments in this field, from early studies to recent work with an emphasis on synthetic methods and tools for controlled assembly of metal NPs by biomimetic polymers and oligomers.
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