Solvent-Induced Aggregation of Self-Assembled Copper–Cysteine Nanoparticles Reacted with Glutathione: Enhancing Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties

Dipankar Bain (1) , Isabelle Russier-Antoine (2) , Hao Yuan (1) , Sarita Kolay (1, 3) , Sylvain Maclot (4) , Christophe Moulin (1) , Estelle Salmon (1) , Pierre-François Brevet (2) , Anna Pniakowska (5) , Joanna Olesiak-Bańska (5) , Rodolphe Antoine (4)

1 ILM - Institut Lumière Matière [Villeurbanne]
2 iLM - ONLI - iLM - Optique non linéaire et interfaces
3 IACS - Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
4 iLM - SPECTROBIO - iLM - Spectrométrie des biomolécules et agrégats
5 Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Copper-thiolate self-assembly nanostructures are a unique class of nanomaterials because of their interesting properties such as hierarchical structures, luminescence, and large nonlinear optical efficiency. Herein, we synthesized biomolecule cysteine (Cys) and glutathione (GSH) capped sub-100 nm self-assembly nanoparticles (Cu–Cys–GSH NPs) with red fluorescence. The as-synthesized NPs show high emission enhancement in the presence of ethanol, caused by the aggregation-induced emission. We correlated the structure and optical properties of Cu–Cys–GSH NPs by measuring the mass, morphology, and surface charge as well as their two-photon excited fluorescence cross-section (σ_2PEPL), two-photon absorption cross-section (σ_TPA) and first hyperpolarizability (β) of Cu–Cys–GSH NPs in water and water–ethanol using near-infrared wavelength. We found a high β value as (77 ± 10) × 10^–28 esu (in water) compared to the reference medium water. The estimated values of σ_2PEPL and σ_TPA are found to be (13 ± 2) GM and (1.4 ± 0.2) × 10⁴ GM, respectively. We hope our investigations of linear and nonlinear optical properties of copper-thiolate self-assemblies in water and its solvent-induced aggregates will open up new possibilities in designing self-assembled systems for many applications including sensing, drug delivery, and catalysis.

Mots clés: Optical properties; Peptides and proteins; Ethanol; Fluorescence; Monomers

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Dipankar Bain, Isabelle Russier-Antoine, Hao Yuan, Sarita Kolay, Sylvain Maclot, et al.. Solvent-Induced Aggregation of Self-Assembled Copper–Cysteine Nanoparticles Reacted with Glutathione: Enhancing Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties. Langmuir, 2023, 39 (46), pp.16554-16561. ⟨10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02526⟩. ⟨hal-04386809⟩