Citation: Yuanpeng Ye, Xinke Hu, Dong Yang, Qianxi Gu, Shangning Liu, Jinhui Jiang, Guofeng Liu, Jianzhong Du. Aqueously dispersed homopolypeptide nanotoroids with tunable circularly polarized luminescence[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(5): 111844. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111844 shu

Aqueously dispersed homopolypeptide nanotoroids with tunable circularly polarized luminescence

Yuanpeng Ye ^{b, 1} ,
Xinke Hu ^{b, 1} ,
Dong Yang ^{b, 1} ,
Qianxi Gu ^a ,
Shangning Liu ^a ,
Jinhui Jiang ^{c, *,} ,
Guofeng Liu ^{d, *,} ,
Jianzhong Du ^{a, b, c, e, *,}

a.
Department of Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
b.
Guohao College, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
c.
Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology and Brain Functional Modulation, Clinical Research Center for Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine Translational Research Institute of Brain and Brain-Like Intelligence, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200434, China
d.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Advanced Research Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
e.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China

Jinhui_JIANG@alumni.tongji.edu.cn

liuguofeng@tongji.edu.cn

jzdu@tongji.edu.cn

Received Date: 10 June 2025
Revised Date: 14 September 2025
Accepted Date: 16 September 2025
Available Online: 16 September 2025

Figures(5)

Aqueously dispersed nanomaterials exhibiting circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) hold great potentials in biological fields due to the inherent chirality of biological systems and its excellent biocompatibility. However, the limited availability of biodegradable CPL nanoparticles in aqueous media has severely constrained the development of biomedical CPL. Here, we present a facile strategy for achieving tunable CPL of aqueously dispersed nanotoroids through the co-assembly of a homopolypeptide with three achiral triphenylamine derivatives, showing a CPL performance depending on the architecture and doping content of small molecules. Remarkably, a deep-red CPL can be achieved with a record luminescence dissymmetry factor (g_lum = 1.1 × 10⁻²) among aqueously polypeptide-based nanoparticles. Furthermore, the densely packed nanostructure completely suppressed the intrinsic reactive oxygen species generation of the chromophores by restricting oxygen diffusion and quenching exciton-energy transfer, thereby eliminating phototoxic risks while preserving imaging fidelity. Overall, this work not only provides a facile method for achieving aqueous CPL from achiral molecules but also establishes a structure-property relationship between chromophore geometry and supramolecular CPL performance, advancing their potential in biological fields.
- Circularly polarized luminescence,
- Homopolypeptide,
- Self-assembly,
- Nanotoroid,
- Reactive oxygen species
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