Construction of energy transfer pathways self-assembled from DNA-templated stacks of anthracene

• We obtained anthracene stacks self-assembled from nucleotide-appended anthracene dye TACT.
• We obtained anthracene stacks self-assembled from TACT and DNA as a templates.
• We describe optical properties of the anthracene stacks.
• The time-resolved fluorescence spectra of these anthracene stacks exhibited different features.
• We concluded energy transfer pathway was constructed by the DNA-templated anthracene assembly.

We describe optical properties of anthracene stacks formed from single-component self-assembly of thymidylic acid-appended anthracene 2,6-bis[5-(3′-thymidylic acid)pentyloxy] anthracene (TACT) and the binary self-assembly of TACT and complementary 20-meric oligoadenylic acid (TACT/dA20) in an aqueous buffer. UV–Vis and emission spectra for the single-component self-assembly of TACT and the binary self-assembly of TACT/dA20 were very consistent with stacked acene moieties in both self-assemblies. Interestingly, time-resolved fluorescence spectra from anthracene stacks exhibited very different features of the single-component and binary self-assemblies. In the single-component self-assembly of TACT, a dynamic Stokes shift (DSS) and relatively short fluorescence lifetime (τ = 0.35 ns) observed at around 450 nm suggested that the anthracene moieties were flexible. Moreover, a broad emission at 530 nm suggested the formation of an excited dimer (excimer). In the binary self-assembly of TACT/dA20, we detected a broad, red-shifted emission component at 534 nm with a lifetime (τ = 0.4 ns) shorter than that observed in the TACT single-component self-assembly. Combining these results with the emission spectrum of the binary self-assembly of TACT/5′-HEX dA20, we concluded that the energy transfer pathway was constructed by columnar anthracene stacks formed from the DNA-templated self-assembly of TACT.

Efficient energy transfer pathways are constructed from the stacks of the anthracene formed by molecular recognition directed binary self-assembly of thymidylic acid-appended anthracene dye and DNA as a template.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide