A Molecular Lock-and-Key Approach To Detecting Solution Phase Self-Assembly. A Fluorescence and Absorption Study of Carminic Acid in Aqueous Glucose Solutions

Abstract

We introduce a novel approach to the study of complex ternary systems where a fluorescent chromophore contains a functionality that incorporates into precrystalline aggregates in concentrated solutions. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by using carminic acid, a fluorescent molecule possessing a pendant glycosyl moiety, in aqueous glucose solutions. We report the steady state absorption and emission response of carminic acid as well as its picosecond dynamical response. These data, taken collectively, show that saturated glucose solutions exhibit anomalous molecular scale organization and that the persistence time of this organization is significantly less than a nanosecond. Our results indicate that kinetic contributions to crystallization are expected to play an important, sometimes dominant, role in this technologically important process.