Ding Wen-Qiang, Liu Han, Qin Si-Yong, Jiang Yan, Lei Xinxiang, Zhang Ai-Qing
Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Energy Materials Chemistry of Ministry of Education & Hubei Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Science, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, China.
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, China.
ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2020 Dec 21;3(12):8989-8996. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.0c01231. Epub 2020 Nov 18.
Despite the rapid progress in peptide liquid crystals (LCs) due to their prominent properties, our investigation on flexible peptide-based LCs is incomplete, mainly resulted from their unclear formation mechanisms and unexploited applications in organic solvents. Here, we develop a lyotropic LC based on a flexible oligopeptide amphiphile, which aggregates into aligned cylinder-like nanostructures in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The formation mechanism of lyotropic LC in DMSO was probed by the experimental investigation and molecular dynamics simulation, indicating that the hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions contribute to the formation of ordered nanostructures in the organic solvent. Arising from the orientational order and suitable fluidity, we exploit the application of lyotropic LC as an aligned medium to measure the residual dipolar couplings of bioactive molecules. This study not only offers the understanding of the mechanism to create LC systems without rigid aromatic groups but also expands the applications of ordered bottom-up nanomaterials in organic solvents.
尽管肽液晶（LCs）因其突出的性能取得了快速进展，但我们对基于柔性肽的液晶的研究并不完整，主要是由于其形成机制不明确以及在有机溶剂中的应用尚未得到开发。在此，我们开发了一种基于柔性寡肽两亲分子的溶致液晶，它在二甲基亚砜（DMSO）中聚集成排列的圆柱状纳米结构。通过实验研究和分子动力学模拟探究了DMSO中溶致液晶的形成机制，表明氢键、疏水作用和静电相互作用有助于在有机溶剂中形成有序的纳米结构。由于取向有序性和合适的流动性，我们开发了溶致液晶作为排列介质来测量生物活性分子的残余偶极耦合的应用。这项研究不仅提供了对创建无刚性芳族基团的液晶系统机制的理解，还扩展了有序自下而上纳米材料在有机溶剂中的应用。
