Murai Kazuki, Higuchi Masahiro, Kuno Tatsuya, Kato Katsuya
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8555 (Japan).
Bio-Integrated Processing Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 2266-98 Anagahora, Shimosidami, Moriyama-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 463-8510 (Japan).
Chempluschem. 2014 Apr;79(4):531-535. doi: 10.1002/cplu.201300321. Epub 2014 Apr 1.
The influence of the charge relay effects of peptide organic templates on silica mineralization has been investigated. β-Sheet-type peptide showed higher catalytic activity towards the condensation of trimethylsilanol than random-coil peptides. The higher activity of the β-sheet peptide was attributed to an effective charge relay effect between the His and Glu residues of the β-sheet assembly. Furthermore, the silica mineralized on the VHVEVS peptide template formed a flat surface, which was affected by the peptide morphology. This result implied that the growth of the silica occurred at the surface of the peptide template in a manner very similar to that of the enzyme reaction. Thus, by using a specific structural design strategy, this process could be used for the preparation of specific silica particles.
