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Peptide‐Templated Synthesis of TiO 2 Nanofibers with Tunable Photocatalytic Activity
Author(s) -
Li Qing,
Zhang Jiaxing,
Wang Yuefei,
Qi Wei,
Su Rongxin,
He Zhimin
Publication year - 2018
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.201804514
Subject(s) - nanofiber , nanomaterials , photocatalysis , materials science , tripeptide , methyl orange , circular dichroism , nanobiotechnology , nanoparticle , nanotechnology , transmission electron microscopy , peptide , chemical engineering , catalysis , chemistry , organic chemistry , crystallography , biochemistry , engineering
Nanofabrication based on biological templates has attracted considerable interest because of its applications in materials science and biomedicine. Herein, a facile method is reported for the synthesis of well‐defined TiO 2 nanofibers by using a simple N ‐(9‐fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl)‐protected phenylalanine–phenylalanine–aspartic acid tripeptide (Fmoc‐Phe–Phe–Asp‐OH, Fmoc‐FFD) as the template. Compared with other synthetic methods of inorganic nanomaterials, these self‐assembling peptides could control the structure and the catalytic activity of the synthesized nanomaterials produced under mild synthetic conditions. The as‐synthesized peptide‐TiO 2 hybrid nanofibers and the calcined TiO 2 nanofibers were characterized by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that well‐defined TiO 2 nanofibers could form when the pH of the peptide solution was 5–7, whereas nanoparticles formed when the pH was 8. Moreover, the peptide‐templated TiO 2 nanofibers showed improved photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange (MO). Finally, the photocatalytic activity of the TiO 2 could be controlled by adjusting the pH of the peptide solution during the synthetic process.