In situreal-time monitoring of the mechanism of self-assembly of short peptide supramolecular polymers

Abstract

Making use of the combination of multiparametric Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) and single-molecule Fluorescence Lifetime Correlation Spectroscopy (FLCS), we have been able to study early stages of Fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl-diphenylalanine (Fmoc-FF)...

Organic/inorganic hydrogels by simultaneous self-assembly and mineralization of aromatic short-peptides

“…This result is consistent with previous works of our group and other groups for peptide gels. 19,26 However, interestingly, the mean values of G' corresponding to the LVR (Figure 5a) differ in magnitude from the values we recently reported in another work 26 for Fmoc-FF gels (not containing HA) for similar amount of peptide (Table S1) 237. Therefore, it seems that at the highest concentration under study in the present work, the combined effects of HA and Fmoc-FF did not result in an increase of the value of G' with respect to the Fmoc-FF gel.…”

“…[20][21][22][23] Moreover, the non-covalent interactions between monomers can also be altered or inhibited by the presence of different additives in the reaction media. [24][25][26] At such, the desired properties of the resulting hydrogels can be substantially different if the additives are introduced before or after gelation. This factor is crucial if hybrid or composite hydrogels are intended.…”

“…Since self-assembly of Fmoc-FF is triggered by Ca 2+ , both processes (self-assembly and mineralization) are interconnected maximizing the interactions and interplay between the organic/inorganic phases and favoring the formation of more homogeneous hybrid hydrogels. Furthermore, Fmoc-AA (Fmoc-dialanine) a known peptide able to form weak hydrogels 26,38,39 have also been used to further shed light about the influence of peptide's self-assembly in the biomineralization process. Previous reports on mineralization of self-assembled supramolecular peptides studied the growth of the mineral from a preexisting supramolecular polymeric network, [40][41][42][43][44] similar to works carried out in polymeric hydrogels.…”

Molecular Functionalization and Emergence of Long-Range Spin-Dependent Phenomena in Two-Dimensional Carbon Nanotube Networks

“…Briefly, a suspension of SWCNTs was prepared in an aqueous basic solution of Fmoc-dipeptide, followed by sonication and centrifugation. Gelification in this case was triggered using Na 2 CO 3 instead of using δ-gluconolactone to avoid additional chiral molecules in the media. − A slice of the gel is placed on Ni–Au electrode pairs (∼100 nm thick, nominal electrode gap ∼1–2 μm) fabricated on SiO 2 /Si, dried at room temperature, and subsequently annealed. Helium ion microscopic image of the final device structure is shown in Figure b.…”

Single-atom substitution enables supramolecular diversity from dipeptide building blocks

“…Prediction of the self-assembly behaviour of dipeptides is remarkably difficult in light of their richness in diverse functional groups and conformational flexibility, so that even subtle structural variations could potentially lead to very divergent outcomes through the cooperative process of self-organization. 14–16 The most popular approach for their design includes the use of polyaromatic N-caps, which facilitate hydrophobically driven self-aggregation and ordered stacking. 14,17 Derivatization can be extended to both termini, introducing non-ionizable groups to reduce the hydrophilic character and, thus, the minimal concentration required for assembly and/or gelation.…”