pH-Responsive Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2023-12-04

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en

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Angewandte Chemie, articlenumber e202312679

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorophores with pH-responsive properties suggest merits in biological analyses. This work establishes a general and effective method to obtain pH-responsive NIR emissive gold nanoclusters by introducing aliphatic tertiary amine (TA) groups into the ligands. Computational study suggests that the pH-responsive NIR emission is associated with electronic structure change upon protonation and deprotonation of TA groups. Photo-induced electron transfer between deprotonated TA groups and the surface Au-S motifs of gold nanoclusters can disrupt the radiative transitions and thereby decrease the photoluminescence intensity in basic environments (pH=7–11). By contrast, protonated TA groups curb the electron transfer and restore the photoluminescence intensity in acidic environments (pH=4–7). The pH-responsive NIR-emitting gold nanoclusters serve as a specific and sensitive probe for the lysosomes in the cells, offering non-invasive emissions without interferences from intracellular autofluorescence.

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| openaire: EC/H2020/742829/EU//DRIVEN

Keywords

Gold Nanoclusters, Near-Infrared, pH-Responsive, Photoluminescence, Tertiary Amine

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Citation

Zhou, S, Gustavsson, L, Beaune, G, Chandra, S, Niskanen, J, Ruokolainen, J, Timonen, J V I, Ikkala, O, Peng, B & Ras, R H A 2023, ' pH-Responsive Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters ', Angewandte Chemie, vol. 62, no. 49, e202312679 . https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202312679