Luminescent Ultralong Microfibers Prepared through Supramolecular Self‐Assembly of Lanthanide Ions and Thymidine in Water

Abstract

Luminescent materials are of great interest in many fields, such as fluorescent sensing and medical imaging. Here, the construction of lanthanide‐based luminescent ultralong microfibers through supramolecular self‐assembly (SSA) is reported. Nucleosides (thymidine in particular), the building blocks of nucleic acids, were used as new ligands to mediate the formation of luminescent microfibers in water. The length of microfibers from thymidine–lanthanide ion (Eu and Tb) SSA was on the centimeter scale. Notably, the microfibers exhibited strong luminescence because the lanthanide ions had been chelated, sensitized and effectively protected by thymidine molecules in water. Only when the stoichiometric ratio of lanthanide ion to thymidine was 1:3 and the pH of the solution was 7, are luminescent microfibers formed. Other nucleosides, such as adenosine, cytidine, and guanosine, could not form microfibers with the lanthanide ions. This work opens a new avenue for constructing nucleoside–lanthanide SSA architectures, which hold great potential in biological and optical related applications.

Multiresponsive Supramolecular Luminescent Hydrogels Based on a Nucleoside/Lanthanide Complex

“…Supramolecular hydrogels have aroused particular interest due to their versatile functions for wide range of applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. − The formation of supramolecular hydrogel is derived from intermolecular noncovalent linkage such as hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions which create fibers, and these fibers further interact to form cross-linked networks. − A variety of supramolecular hydrogels have been prepared via using biological molecules by virtue of their intrinsic biological nature, such as amino acids, − peptides, , sugar, nucleic acids, , and nucleolipids . In particular, nucleosides, the component of nucleic acids, are of great potential for preparing hydrogels due to their special properties of self-assembly and promising biorelated applications. , It has been reported that nucleosides and their derivatives could gelate with cations or anions to form hydrogels. − On the other hand, as an attractive metal for supramolecular self-assembly (SSA), the lanthanide ion possesses large numbers of coordination sites and excellent characteristic luminescent performance. − Considering the excellent properties of both lanthanides and nucleosides, in this work, we create luminescent hydrogels by SSA of lanthanides and nucleosides.…”

DNA: From Carrier of Genetic Information to Polymeric Materials

“…The nucleobase and the phosphate groups in the DNA molecule can coordinate with metal ions to form DNA-metal hybrid materials with diverse applications in biosensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, and enzyme catalysis [20][21][22]. We have recently created luminescent ultralong microfibers through supramolecular self-assembly (SSA) of lanthanide ions and nucleoside thymidine [23]. Thymidine was used as a ligand to chelate lanthanide ions Eu(III)/Tb(III) to form luminescent complexes in water, and then, the complexes were able to further assemble into ultralong luminescent microfibers (Fig.…”

“…A Scheme for the synthesis of luminescent ultralong microfibers through SSA of lanthanide and thymidine in water, and B fluorescent microscopy images of ultralong microfibers. Reproduced with permission[23]. Copyright 2018, Wiley-VCH…”