DNA-protected silver emitters: charge dependent switching of fluorescence

Abstract

The relationship between the state of charge and spectroscopy of DNA-protected silver emitters is not yet well understood. This remains one of the major issues to unveil in order to fully disentangle the spectroscopic features of these novel systems. It is a well known fact that a fluorescence response arises upon chemical reduction of silver cations attached to DNA, leading to neutral (or partially oxidized) “bright” clusters. It is important to note that the absence of fluorescence in completely ionic complexes is universal in the sense that it does not depend on any experimental variable. This suggests that its origin may be founded on the nature of the interaction between DNA bases and silver cations. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no explanation exists for this charge dependent switching between dark completely ionic complexes and bright (neutral or partially oxidized) clusters. In this brief report we address this experimental fact on the basis of the electronic structure of the complex as a function of its charge and quantum dynamical simulations of the processes following photoexcitation. These data provide a dynamical picture of the correlation between charge and fluorescence.