Enzyme-activatable charge transfer in gold nanoclusters
Hao‐Hua Deng, Kai‐Yuan Huang, Yu Zhong, Ye Li, Hongxiang Huang, Xiangyu Fang, Wei‐Ming Sun, Qiaofeng Yao, Wei Chen, Jianping Xie
Abstract
, can form a stable intramolecular CT state after light excitation, and exhibits long-lived color-tunable phosphorescence. After the cleavage by purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), the CT triplet state can be easily directed to a low-lying energy level, leading to a bathochromic shift of the emission band accompanied by weaker and shorter-lived luminescence. Remarkably, these ligand-engineered AuNCs show high affinity towards PNP as well as decent performance for analyzing and visualizing enzyme activity and related drugs. The work of this paper provides a good example for diversifying physicochemical properties and application scenarios of MNCs by rational ligand engineering, which will facilitate future interest and new strategies to precisely engineer solution-based nanocluster materials.