Self-assembling of Fmoc-GC Peptide Nucleic Acid dimers into highly fluorescent aggregates

Self-assembling of molecules by non-covalent interactions is one of the most attracting topics in supramolecular chemistry. The use of short peptides or modified nucleotides as building blocks of the aggregates is particularly intriguing, as these are very easy to synthesize; moreover subtle changes in the chemical structure of such building blocks may drastically affect the properties of the aggregates. The ability of Peptide Nucleic Acids to aggregate is yet very little explored, despite its practical applications. In this work we investigated the self-assembling properties of a PNA dimer, conjugated at the N-terminus to a fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl group. This PNA dimer forms nano-aggregates at low concentration in CHCl3/CH3OH mixtures. The aggregates keep very interesting fluorescent properties (high quantum yield in the visible region with lifetime in the nanoseconds scale), which make them a promising material for applications in optoelectronic.