Excitation-dependent visible fluorescence in decameric nanoparticles with monoacylglycerol cluster chromophores

Organic fluorescent nanoparticles, excitation-dependent photoluminescence, hydrogen-bonded clusters and lysobisphosphatidic acid are four interesting individual topics in materials and biological sciences. They have attracted much attention not only because of their unique properties and important applications, but also because the nature of their intriguing phenomena remained unclear. Here we report a new type of organic fluorescent nanoparticles with intense blue and excitation-dependent visible fluorescence in the range of 410–620 nm. The nanoparticles are composed of ten bis(monoacylglycerol)bisphenol-A molecules and the self-assembly occurs only in elevated concentrations of 2-monoacylglycerol via radical-catalysed 3,2-acyl migration from 3-monoacylglycerol in neat conditions. The excitation-dependent fluorescence behaviour is caused by chromophores composed of hydrogen-bonded monoacylglycerol clusters, which are linked by an extensive hydrogen-bonding network between the ester carbonyl groups and the protons of the alcohols with collective proton motion and HO···C=O (n→π*) interactions.