Bio-inspired incorporation of phenylalanine enhances ionic selectivity in layer-by-layer deposited polyelectrolyte films

Abstract

Biological protein ion channels inspire advanced ion selective polyelectrolyte membranes by incorporation of phenylalanine, leading to increased ion selectivity.

Dipeptide self-assembly into water-channels and gel biomaterial

“…1 In particular, dipeptides are the simplest building blocks of this class of biomolecules, thus being the most advantageous in terms of ease of preparation and production cost, both of which are key to enable their translation into commercial products. 2,3 Potential fields of applications are numerous and very diverse, and they range from medicine, 4–7 to bioelectronics, 8–10 and energy. 11,12…”

“…1 In particular, dipeptides are the simplest building blocks of this class of biomolecules, thus being the most advantageous in terms of ease of preparation and production cost, both of which are key to enable their translation into commercial products. 2,3 Potential fields of applications are numerous and very diverse, and they range from medicine, [4][5][6][7] to bioelectronics, [8][9][10] and energy. 11,12 However, it is well-known that prediction of supramolecular behaviour of dipeptides is very challenging, owing to their richness in available conformations, and diversity in their functional groups, so that even subtle structural differences are amplified through cooperative self-assembly, into dramatically different outcomes.…”

Carboxylate binding prefers two cations to one

“…Ion binding is important in determining not just static structure, but also the dynamics of ion transport. [1][2][3] Such ion dynamics are important in a wide range of applications including energy storage, [4][5][6] water filtration, 7,8 ion channel proteins [9][10][11][12] and perovskite solar cells. 13,14 Accurate characterization of the binding between ligands and ion can be done using density functional theory (DFT) methods.…”

Single-atom substitution enables supramolecular diversity from dipeptide building blocks

“…1 Thanks to the great chemical diversity of natural and non-canonical amino acids, 2 it is possible to tune the physico-chemical properties of the final product, and this is an attractive feature for different applications spanning from innovative solutions in medicine 3–6 to energy 7,8 and bioelectronics. 9–11 To enable translation into the market, it is key to design systems with low-cost and easy scale-up. For this reason, the minimal building blocks, i.e.…”