L-Phenylalanine-derived pseudopeptidic bioinspired materials: Zn(II) induced fluorescence enhancement and precise tuning of self-assembled nanostructures.

The pseudopeptide, owing to its intriguing, sustainable, and easily accessible multifunctional properties, has attracted significant research interest over the years. C2-symmetric pseudopeptidic chiral bioinspired materials have been developed for their selective sensitivity to Zn(II) ions via a turn-on fluorescence under physiological conditions. Moreover, these are promising soft materials for precisely tuning their self-assembled nanostructures after incubating with Zn(II), opening avenues for exploring similar effects in various peptidomimetics.

Pyrene Functionalized Luminescent Phenylalanine for Selective Detection of Copper (II) Ions in Aqueous Media.

A novel pyrene-based fluorescent chemosensor 1 (pyren-1-ylmethyl)-L-phenylalanine was designed and synthesized by combining 1-pyrenecarboxyaldehyde and L-phenylalanine. 1 was characterized by several analytical methods and used as a fluorescent chemosensor for the selective and sensitive detection of Cu2+ ions through "turn-off" mechanism with a detection limit of 2 × 10-8 M. 1 can also be used to detect Cu2+ ions in a natural water sample and exhibits gelation properties with high thermal stability.

Development of highly selective fluorescent ferrocenyl-iminopyridine chemosensor for biologically relevant Fe3.

Design, synthesis, characterization, and ion detection studies of two ferrocene-appended Schiff bases namely N-(2-[ferrocenylamino]ethyl)-5-nitropyridin-2-amine (1) and ferrocenylamino-1H-imidazole-4-carboxamide (2) been reported. Both the chemosensors have been thoroughly characterized using Fourier transfer infrared, 1 H and 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance, high resolution mass spectrometry, and ultraviolet/visible (UV/visible) and fluorescence spectral techniques. Probes 1 and 2 were designed with the aim of appending the ferrocenyl group with pyridine ring having an amine substitution (for 1) and imidazole ring with an amide substitution (for 2). Interaction of these probes with a series of cations and anions was examined through UV/vis and fluorescence spectral techniques. Probe 2 exhibited an insignificant response towards anions and loss of selectivity for cations, whereas 1 displayed highly selective detection towards biologically important Fe3+ in 2:1 (probe:cation) stoichiometry. Notably, none of the cations and anions could interfere the selectivity of Fe3+ ensured by 1 in aqueous medium. The limit of detection for Fe3+ detection using 1 was determined to be 0.2 ppm. The results strongly suggest that 1 could find promising future application as a chemosensor for Fe3+ in biological systems for quantification and qualitative analysis.

Zinc-Induced Luminescent l-Valine-Based Pseudopeptidic Soft Bioinspired Materials for Precise Tuning of Nanoassembly.

Pseudopeptide-based bioinspired materials are emerging for selective recognition of biologically significant analytes and are applicable in the modern nanoscience field. Therefore, we have developed novel multifunctional C2-symmetric soft pseudopeptides by amino acid l-valine and salicylaldehyde fragments using a series of aliphatic linkers. They are highly selective and sensitive to Zn (II) ions under physiological conditions and reveal significant fluorescence enhancement with the PET mechanism. The molecular self-assembly shows zinc-induced morphological transformation of the rod-shaped assembly into a chain-like morphology. Such a metal-induced hierarchical nano-assembly may have relevance for specific nanobiotechnology applications.