Adenine selected hydrogelation of vitamin B2 with amplified circularly polarized luminescence

Abstract

Although the individual VB2 cannot form gels in water, it could form a two-component hydrogel with adenine (A) through the intermolecular π–π stacking and hydrogen bonding between VB2 and A, while other nucleobases, including thymine (T), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and uracil (U), could not. The chiral information of VB2 was amplified in the co-assembly of VB2 and A, which was revealed by the enhanced circular dichroism (CD) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Moreover, due to the different interaction modes between VB2 and A in 1 : 1 and 1 : 2 molar ratio, a reversion of the CPL signal was observed. This work demonstrated how biological molecules could be fabricated into functional materials using the specific interactions within the biological molecules.