The spontaneous micelle-to-vesicle transition in an aqueous mixture of two surface-active ionic liquids (SAILs), namely, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium n-octylsulfate ([C4mim][C8SO4]) and 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazoium chloride ([C12mim]Cl) is described. In addition to detailed structural characterization obtained by using dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and cryogenic TEM techniques, ultrafast fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from coumarin 153 (C153) as a donor (D) to rhodamine 6G (R6G) as an acceptor (A) is also used to study micelle-vesicle transitions in the present system. Structural transitions of SAIL micelles ([C4mim][C8SO4] or [C12mim]Cl micelles) to mixed SAIL vesicles resulted in significantly increased D-A distances, and therefore, increased timescale of FRET. In [C4mim][C8SO4] micelles, FRET between C153 and R6G occurs on an ultrafast timescale of 3.3 ps, which corresponds to a D-A distance of about 15 Å. As [C4mim][C8SO4] micelles are transformed into mixed micelles upon the addition of a 0.25 molar fraction of [C12mim]Cl, the timescale of FRET increases to 300 ps, which suggests an increase in the D-A distance to 31 Å. At a 0.5 molar fraction of [C12mim]Cl, unilamellar vesicles are formed in which FRET occurs on multiple timescales of about 250 and 2100 ps, which correspond to D-A distances of 33 and 47 Å. Although in micelles and mixed micelles the obtained D-A distances are well correlated with their radius, in vesicles the obtained D-A distance is within the range of the bilayer thickness.

2-(4'-Pyridyl)benzimidazole (4PBI) can exist in several states of protonation, having three basic nitrogen atoms. The equilibria involving these states, in ground as well as in excited states, are found to be affected significantly by cyclodextrins (CDs). The formation of inclusion complexes of this compound with all three varieties of cyclodextrins is observed to be more favorable at pH 9 than at pH 4, due to the predominance of the neutral form of dye at pH 9. The binding affinity of 4PBI to CDs is found to be governed by two factors: (i) the size of the host and (ii) the mode of insertion of 4PBI. We find that, for the host with a smaller cavity (α-CD), insertion of the dye with a pyridyl face is favored, whereas, for γ-CD, the preference is shifted toward the benzimidazole face of the dye. For β-CD, the binding affinity of the dye is maximum due to perfect cavity matching with the guest. A combination of steric factor and hydrogen bonding interaction is found to be responsible for modulation of the protonation-deprotonation equilibria of the guest molecule in the inclusion complex. Surprisingly, a protonated form is found to be promoted upon inclusion in cyclodextrins, under certain conditions. This is an unusual behavior and has been rationalized by prototropism involving the hydroxyl protons of cyclodextrin molecules.

Iron is a key nutrient as well as a potential toxin for almost all living organisms. In mammalian cells, serum transferrin (Tf) is responsible for iron transport and its iron overload/deficiency causes various diseases. Therefore, closely regulated iron homeostasis is extremely essential for cellular metabolism. In the present article we report the pH-dependent luminescence turn-on/off sensing of bound Fe(3+) ions of serum Tf by carbon dots (CDs) with the help of photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), circular dichroism (CD) and PL imaging techniques. At physiological pH (7.4), the intrinsic luminescence of CDs gets quenched in the presence of Tf as a consequence of ground-state association, which is driven by favorable electrostatic interactions between negatively charged CDs (-25.45 ± 1.23 mV) and positively charged Fe(3+) ions of Tf. The estimated detection limit of Tf by CDs at physiological pH is found to be 1.82 μM (signal-to-noise ratio of 3), which is much lower than the in vivo plasma concentration of Tf (∼ 25-35 μM). Various thermodynamic parameters have been evaluated by using the van't Hoff equation. Importantly, the secondary structure of Tf remains unaltered upon association with CDs. However, at pH 3.5, no such luminescence quenching of CDs has been observed in the presence of Tf due to the lack of ground-state interactions between positively charged (+17.63 ± 0.84 mV) CDs and Tf. Furthermore, the results from UV-Vis and far-UV CD measurements revealed a significant conformational change of Tf at pH 3.5 relative to pH 7.4, which triggers the subsequent release of bound iron from Tf. PL microscopy of individual CD revealed significant luminescence quenching at the single particle level, which further supports the non-emissive ground-state complexation at pH 7.4. Our present results show that these chemically synthesized water-dispersed CDs have the ability to selectively sense the bound iron from released iron of Tf without any conformational perturbation and hence they can be used as potential biological iron sensors as well as luminescent markers for the detection of iron deficiency/overload in biological macromolecules.

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