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Construction of Helical Nanofibers from Self‐Assembling Pseudopeptide Building Blocks: Modulating the Handedness and Breaking the Helicity
Author(s) -
Guha Samit,
Drew Michael G. B.,
Banerjee Arindam
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.200800002
Subject(s) - nanofiber , supramolecular chemistry , chirality (physics) , materials science , template , supramolecular chirality , nanotechnology , nanostructure , dipeptide , colloidal gold , self assembly , helicity , nanoparticle , molecule , chemistry , peptide , physics , organic chemistry , biochemistry , chiral symmetry breaking , particle physics , quantum mechanics , quark , nambu–jona lasinio model
Abstract Helical nanofibers are successfully constructed from suitable self‐assembling pseudopeptide‐based molecular building blocks. The handedness of these nanofibers can be reversed by using mirror‐imaged pseudopeptide‐based building blocks. Straight nanofibers are also constructed by modulating the molecular and supramolecular structures by the proper choice of the stereochemical nature of the molecular scaffolds. This study demonstrates that molecular structure and chirality are not the only determining factors for tuning the morphology and chirality of nanostructures; the nature of the supramolecular structures formed from the corresponding molecular scaffolds also plays a key role in dictating the shape and chirality of nanostructures. Helical nanofibers are suitable templates for fabricating dipeptide‐capped gold nanoparticles, indicating a possible use of these nanofibers in the construction of arrays of gold nanoparticles.