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A visible-near-infrared light-responsive host-guest pair with nanomolar affinity in water

Publication . Ferreira, Pedro; Ventura, Barbara; Barbieri, Andrea; Da Silva, José Paulo; Laia, Cesar A. T.; Jorge Parola, A.; Basilie, Nuno

The discovery of stimuli-responsive high affinity host-guest pairs with potential applications under biologically relevant conditions is a challenging goal. This work reports a high-affinity 1:1 complex formed between cucurbit[8]uril and a water-soluble photochromic diarylethene derivative. It was found that, by confining the open isomer within the cavity of the receptor, a redshift in the absorption spectrum and an enhancement of the photocyclization quantum yield from phi=0.04 to phi=0.32 were induced. This improvement in the photochemical performance enables quantitative photocyclization with visible light that, together with the near-infrared light-induced ring-opening reaction and the 100-fold selectivity for the closed isomer, confirms this as an outstanding light-responsive affinity pair.

2019-03Journal article

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