Molecular assembly of a squaraine dye with cationic surfactant and nucleotides: its impact on aggregation and fluorescence response

A novel fluorescent system has been assembled by using ATP, surfactant, and a squaraine dye in an aqueous buffer solution. In the system, a cationic surfactant such as cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) forms a sphere-like micelle, whose positive charge at the surface of the micelle attracts the negatively charged ATP to form a unique organized nanostructure. Such an organized system is shown to interact with the squaraine dye (SQ) to perturb its aggregate structure, thereby generating the optical response. The nanostructure of the assembly has been characterized by dynamic light-scattering (DLS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The unique feature of the developed sensing system is that the analytes ATP form part of the assembly structure. The system utilizes forces such as electrostatic interaction and p-p stacking of the aromatic segment of ATP and SQ to achieve the selective detection of ATP.