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Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Published on: January 10, 2017
Unraveling the structure-chirality sensing relationship between achiral anthracene-based tetracationic nanotubes and
Ting Yang1, Honghong Duan2, Hao Nian3
1College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
Abstract:
In biological systems, nucleosides play crucial roles in various physiological processes. In this study, we designed and synthesized four achiral anthracene-based tetracationic nanotubes (1-4) as artificial hosts and chiroptical sensors for nucleosides in aqueous media. Notably, different nanotubes exhibit varied chirality sensing on circular dichroism (CD)/circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) spectra through the host-guest complexation, which prompted us to explore the factors influencing their chiroptical responses. Through systematic host-guest experiments, the structure-chirality sensing relationship between achiral anthracene-based tetracationic nanotubes and nucleosides in the host-guest complexation was unraveled. Firstly, the CD response originates from the anthracene rings situated at the side-wall position, resulting from the right-handed (P)- or left-handed (M)-twisted conformation of the macrocyclic structure. Secondly, the CPL signal is influenced by the presence of anthracene rings at the linking-wall position, which results from intermolecular chiral twisted stacking between these anthracene rings. Therefore, these nanotubes can serve as chiroptical sensor arrays to enhance the accuracy of nucleotide recognition through principal component analysis (PCA) analysis based on the diversified CD spectra. This study provides insights for the construction of adaptive chirality from achiral nanotubes with dynamic conformational nature and might facilitate further design of chiral functional materials for several applications.
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