A novel supramolecular assembly based on nor - seco -cucurbit[10]uril for spermine sensing and artificial light-harvesting

A supramolecular assembly composed of perylene diimide derivative (PDI-nm) and nor-seco- seco- cucurbit[10]uril (ns-Q[10]) ns-Q[10]) was designed. The excellent host-guest interaction between PDI-nm and ns- Q[10] prevented the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect of PDI-nm, resulting in a luminescent assembly. The addition of spermine to the PDI-nm/ns ns-Q[10] assembly restored the ACQ of PDI-nm due to the competitive binding of spermine to ns-Q[10], which released PDI-nm. The assembly based on this principle showed ultra-high sensitivity for the detection of spermine with a detection limit as low as 7.84 x 10-7mol/L -7 mol/L in aqueous solution and 3.69 x 10-7mol/L -7 mol/L in plasma solution. Moreover, an artificial light-harvesting system based on this assembly was proposed, benefiting from its good luminescent performance. Nile red (NiR) functioned as an acceptor loaded into assembly, and a highly efficient energy transfer process occurred from PDI-nm/ns ns-Q[10] to NiR, with an efficiency up to 87 %. (c) 2024 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.