Assembling aggregation-induced emission with natural DNA to maximize donor/acceptor ratio for efficient light-harvesting antennae.

Arranging dense donors around a single acceptor for the assembly of efficient light-harvesting antennas is a long-standing challenge due to the intractable aggregation-caused quenching of dense donors. Herein, we designed a cationic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) amphiphile to self-assemble with natural DNA duplexes. As an efficient donor, the as-prepared cationic AIE amphiphile could be densely attached to the phosphate groups of natural DNA duplexes by using the smaller cationic trimethylammonium. The long alkyl chain between the cationic trimethylammonium and the AIE fluorophore allowed for avoiding the insufficient binding caused by the steric hindrance of the AIE fluorophore, resulting in a remarkably high donor/acceptor ratio comparable to that of the widely developed custom DNA assemblies. The proposed self-assembly strategy provided novel flexible avenues for the assembling of finely controlled and efficient light-harvesting systems into natural DNA with little synthetic modifications and low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]