1 research outputs found
Water-Floating Giant Nanosheets from Helical Peptide Pentamers
One of the important challenges in
the development of protein-mimetic
materials is understanding the sequence-specific assembly behavior
and dynamic folding change. Conventional strategies for constructing
two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures from peptides have been limited
to using β-sheet forming sequences as building blocks due to
their natural tendency to form sheet-like aggregations. We have identified
a peptide sequence (YFCFY) that can form dimers <i>via</i> a disulfide bridge, fold into a helix, and assemble into macroscopic
flat sheets at the air/water interface. Due to the large driving force
for 2D assembly and high elastic modulus of the resulting sheet, the
peptide assembly induces flattening of the initially round water droplet.
Additionally, we found that stabilization of the helix by dimerization
is a key determinant for maintaining macroscopic flatness over a few
tens of centimeters even with a uniform thickness of <10 nm. Furthermore,
the ability to transfer the sheets from a water droplet to another
substrate allows for multiple stacking of 2D peptide nanostructures,
suggesting possible applications in biomimetic catalysis, biosensors,
and 2D related electronic devices