A transient organo-gelation system with spatiotemporal dynamic properties is described. Here, the solvent actively controls a complex set of equilibria that underpin the dynamic assembly event. The observed metastability is...

The N-fluorenyl-9-methyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-protected amino acids have shown high antimicrobial application potential, among which the phenylalanine derivative (Fmoc-F) is the most well-known representative. However, the activity spectrum of Fmoc-F is restricted to Gram-positive bacteria only. The demand for efficient antimicrobial materials expanded research into graphene and its derivatives, although the reported results are somewhat controversial. Herein, we combined graphene oxide (GO) flakes with Fmoc-F amino acid to form Fmoc-F/GO hybrid hydrogel for the first time. We studied the synergistic effect of each component on gelation and assessed the material's bactericidal activity on Gramnegative Escherichia coli (E. coli). GO flakes do not affect Fmoc-F self-assembly per se but modulate the elasticity of the gel and speed up its formation. The hybrid hydrogel affects E. coli survival, initially causing abrupt bacterial death followed by the recovery of the surviving ones due to the inoculum effect (IE). The combination of graphene with amino acids is a step forward in developing antimicrobial gels due to their easy preparation, chemical modification, graphene functionalization, cost-effectiveness, and physicochemical/biological synergy of each component.

We report the effects of a laser-oxidized single layer graphene (SLG) surface on the self-assembly of amphiphilic gelator N-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-L-phenylalanine (Fmoc-Phe) towards an gel-SLG interface. Laser oxidation modulates the levels of...

The design of soft biomaterials requires a deep understanding of molecular self‐assembly. Here a nanoscale infrared (IR) spectroscopy study of a two‐component supramolecular gel is introduced to assess the system's heterogeneity and supramolecular assembly. In contrast to far‐field IR spectroscopy, near‐field IR spectroscopy revealed differences in the secondary structures of the gelator molecules and non‐covalent interactions at three distinct nano‐locations of the gel network. A β‐sheet arrangement is dominant in single and parallel fibres with a small proportion of an α‐helix present, while the molecular assembly derives from strong hydrogen bonding. However, at the crossing point of two fibres, only the β‐sheet motif is observed, with an intense π–π stacking contribution. Near‐field nanospectroscopy can become a powerful tool for the nanoscale distinction of non‐covalent interactions, while it is expected to advance the existing spectroscopic assessments of supramolecular gels.