Unzipping Nucleoside Channels by Means of Alcohol Disassembly

Gold nanoparticles capped with simple adenosine derivatives can form colloidal aggregates in nonpolar solvents. Theoretical calculations indicate the formation of organic channels by the supramolecular assembly of the nanoparticles by means of hydrogen bonds between the adenine moieties. The aggregates were only negligibly sensitive to nPrOH, iPrOH, and tBuOH, whereas some showed a similar response to MeOH and EtOH, and others showed high selectivity toward MeOH. DNA nucleoside derivatives (1-(2-deoxy-β-D-ribofuranosyl)-5-methyluracil and 2′,3′-O-isopropylideneadenosine) as well as thymine and other aromatic compounds such as pyrene derivatives (pyrene, 1-chloropyrene, 1-hydroxypyrene, (1-p…