We present a combined
experimental–simulation study of self-assembly
into one-dimensional filaments. Experimentally, we study amphiphilic
AuI-metallopeptides in neutral aqueous media. Our model
focuses on two aspects of the monomers, their geometry and their hydrophobic
core. We demonstrate numerically that a coarse-grained, generic model
is sufficient to obtain spontaneous formation of nearly defect-free,
long supramolecular polymers at experimentally relevant monomer concentrations.
In the simulations, we find both nonchiral and helical polymer morphologies
depending on the effective hydrophobic strength. We analyze the assembly
kinetics, comparing simulations to experimental data obtained from
circular dichroism spectroscopy, and relate both to kinetic models
of nucleated polymerization. While the simulations proceed via nucleation
and elongation, experimental kinetics seems to involve fragmentation.