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Nanotubes and bilayers in a model peptide system

Soft Matter, ISSN: 1744-683X, Vol: 7, Issue: 10, Page: 4868-4875
2011
  • 30
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 19
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
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Metrics Details

  • Citations
    30
    • Citation Indexes
      30
  • Captures
    19

Article Description

The trifluoroacetate (tfa) salt of the peptide (ala)lys self-assembles in water into very long, hollow nanotubes with a radius R = 26 nm, above a critical aggregation concentration (volume fraction), = 0.10. The peptides carry a net positive charge that ensures colloidal stability of the self-assembly structures through a long-range electrostatic repulsion. There is only a weak temperature dependence of from which an enthalpy of aggregation of -kT per molecule is estimated. SAXS data show that the thickness of the nanotube wall, δ, is less than 1 nm indicating that the peptides form a monolayer in the nanotube wall. The nanotubes have a very large aspect ratio and form an ordered nematic or hexagonal phase. Because of the low δ/R ratio, the nanotube volume fraction grows very rapidly with increasing peptide concentration, , and reaches close packing already at = 0.15. When increasing the concentration further, there is a phase transition to a novel lamellar phase where the peptide molecules form bilayers consisting of two, presumably oppositely oriented, monolayers. © 2011 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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