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Control of Chiral Nanostructures by Self‐Assembly of Designed Amphiphilic Peptides and Silica Biomineralization
Author(s) -
Huang Zhehao,
Yao Yuan,
Han Lu,
Che Shunai
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201403498
Subject(s) - biomineralization , amphiphile , chirality (physics) , enantiopure drug , supramolecular chirality , nanostructure , materials science , nanotechnology , nanomaterials , self assembly , supramolecular chemistry , biomimetics , chemistry , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , molecule , enantioselective synthesis , polymer , chiral symmetry , physics , catalysis , quantum mechanics , nambu–jona lasinio model , engineering , copolymer , composite material , quark
Peptides, the fundamental building units of biological systems, are chiral in molecular scale as well as in spatial conformation. Shells are exquisite examples of well‐defined chiral structures produced by natural biomineralization. However, the fundamental mechanism of chirality expressed in biological organisms remains unclear. Here, we present a system that mimics natural biomineralization and produces enantiopure chiral inorganic materials with controllable helicity. By tuning the hydrophilicity of the amphiphilic peptides, the chiral morphologies and mesostructures can be changed. With decreasing hydrophilicity of the amphiphilic peptides, we observed that the nanostructures changed from twisted nanofibers with a hexagonal mesostructure to twisted nanoribbons with a lamellar mesostructure, and the extent of the helicity decreased. Defining the mechanism of chiral inorganic materials formed from peptides by noncovalent interactions can improve strategies toward the bottom‐up synthesis of nanomaterials as well as in the field of bioengineering.