Assembled Vitamin B2 Nanocrystals with Optical Waveguiding and Photosensitizing Properties for Potential Biomedical Application

Great success has been achieved in recent years in the development of synthetic or assembled nanobiomaterials. Among these, biomolecule‐based nanoarchitectures with special optical property are of particular interest. Here, we demonstrate that vitamin B₂ nanocrystals assembled as nanorods can be obtained with precise control. Excitingly, such one‐dimensional nanostructures not only exhibit intrinsic optical waveguiding properties but also the ability to sensitize oxygen to produce reactive oxygen species. With these properties, we applied the obtained vitamin B₂ nanorods under remotely localized light illumination into single tumour cells in vitro for anticancer photodynamic therapy. Further, vitamin B₂ nanorods were explored for in vivo photodynamic therapy by using a tumour model. With such bionanostructures, new features and functions of vitamin B₂ and its derivatives have been developed.     

A Ligand‐Protected Golden Fullerene: The Dipyridylamido Au328+ Nanocluster

A golden fullerene Au₃₂ cluster has been synthesized with amido and phosphine ligands as the protecting agents. Single‐crystal X‐ray structural analysis revealed that this gold nanocluster, [Au₃₂(Ph₃P)₈(dpa)₆] (SbF₆)₂ (Hdpa=2,2′‐dipyridylamine), has a stable pseudo‐I_h Au₃₂⁸⁺ core with S₆ symmetry, which features an Au₁₂@Au₂₀ Keplerate cage co‐protected by Ph₃P and dpa ligands. Quantum‐chemical studies were conducted to elucidate the origin of the special stability of this cluster, and suggest that it is electronically stabilized through metal–ligand interactions.     

Engineering Donor–Acceptor Heterostructure Metal–Organic Framework Crystals for Photonic Logic Computation

Photonic materials use photons as information carriers and offer the potential for unprecedented applications in optical and optoelectronic devices. In this study, we introduce a new strategy for photonic materials using metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as the host for the rational construction of donor–acceptor (D–A) heterostructure crystals. We have engineered a rich library of heterostructure crystals using the MOF NKU‐111 as a host. NKU‐111 is based upon an electron‐deficient tridentate ligand (acceptor) that can bind to various electron‐rich guests (donors). The resulting heterocrystals exhibit spatially segregated multi‐color emission resulting from the guest‐dependent charge‐transfer (CT) emission. Spatially effective mono‐directional energy transfer results from tuning the energy gradient between adjacent domains through the selection of donor guest molecules, which suggests potential applications in integrated optical circuit devices, for example, photonic diodes, on‐chip signal processing, optical logic gates.