Xie Yanyan, Wang Yuefei, Qi Wei, Huang Renliang, Su Rongxin, He Zhimin
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, P. R. China.
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, P. R. China.
Small. 2017 Aug;13(30). doi: 10.1002/smll.201700999. Epub 2017 Jun 22.
Self-assembly of chiral nanostructures is of considerable interest, since the ability to control the chirality of these structures has direct ramifications in biology and materials science. A new approach to design chiral nanostructures from self-assembly of N-(9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl)-protected phenylalanine-tryptophan-lysine tripeptides is reported. The terminal charges can induce helical twisting of the assembled β-sheets, enabling the formation of well-defined chiral nanostructures. The degree and direction of twisting in the β-sheets can be precisely tailored through in situ pH and temperature modulations. This enables the assembly of reconfigurable chiral nanomaterials with easily adjustable size and handedness. These results offer new insight into the mechanism of helical twist formation, which may enable the precise assembly of highly dynamical materials with potential applications in biomedicine, chiroptics, and chiral sensing.
手性纳米结构的自组装备受关注，因为控制这些结构的手性的能力在生物学和材料科学中具有直接影响。本文报道了一种通过N-（9-芴甲氧羰基）保护的苯丙氨酸-色氨酸-赖氨酸三肽自组装来设计手性纳米结构的新方法。末端电荷可诱导组装的β-折叠发生螺旋扭曲，从而形成明确的手性纳米结构。通过原位pH和温度调制，可以精确调整β-折叠中的扭曲程度和方向。这使得可重构手性纳米材料的组装成为可能，其尺寸和手性易于调节。这些结果为螺旋扭曲形成机制提供了新的见解，这可能有助于精确组装具有高动态性的材料，并在生物医学、手性光学和手性传感等领域具有潜在应用。
