Smart stimuli-responsive fluorescent materials are of interest in the context of sensing and imaging applications. In this project, we elaborated multi-dynamic fluorescent materials made of a tetraphenylethene fluorophore displaying aggregation-induced emission and short cysteine-rich C-hydrazide peptides. Specifically, we show that a hierarchical dynamic covalent self-assembly process, combining disulphide and acyl-hydrazone bonds formation operating simultaneously in a one-pot reaction, yields cage compounds at low concentration (2 mM) while soluble fluorescent dynamic covalent networks and even chemically cross-linked fluorescent organogels are formed at higher concentrations. The number of cysteine residues in the peptide sequence impacts directly the mechanical properties of the resulting organogels, Young moduli varying 2500-fold across the series. Those materials underpinned by a nanofibrillar network display multi-dynamic responsiveness following concentration changes, chemical triggers, as well as light irradiation, all of which enable their controlled degradation with concomitant changes in spectroscopic outputs -self-assembly enhancing fluorescence emission by ca. 100-fold and disassembly quenching fluorescence emission.

No abstract