AVS 51st International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS-TuA

Paper NS-TuA4
Hairy Peptide Nanotubes

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 2:20 pm, Room 213D

Session: Nanostructures and Biology
Presenter: M. Biesalski, Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK), Germany
Authors: M. Biesalski, Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK), Germany
J. Couet, Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK), Germany
J.D. Jeyaprakash S. Samuel, Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK), Germany
S. Santer, Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK), Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
A general theme in Nanotechnology is the development of novel materials with well-defined composition and nanometer scale structures. To this, materials scientists are increasingly deriving new lessons from naturally occurring "nanomaterials" about useful composition-structure property relationships that might be mimicked with synthetic materials.@footnote 1@ An interesting example constitutes the bottom-up formation of hollow tubular structures by a spontaneous self-assembly of cyclic peptides. Cyclic peptides consisting of alternating D- and L-amino acids posses a flat conformation that allows the build-up of beta-sheet type assemblies, where the cyclic peptides are stacked onto each other forming a hollow tubular structure with a precisely defined inner diameter and all amino acid residues pointing outwards.@footnote 2@ In order to construct functional polymeric nanotubes we have synthesized cyclic peptides that are modified with an ATRP initiator at distinct side groups ("CP-ini"). The CP-ini self-assembles into nanotubes that present these initiator moieties on the surface. The peptide nanotubes are subsequently coated with different functional polymers by using (living) radical polymerization initiated from the surface of the tubes. The so prepared functional nanotubes are characterized with respect to the dimensions, morphology and higher order assemblies using AFM, TEM and X-ray diffraction. The size of the polymeric shell of the nanotubes can be controlled by adjusting the graft density and the molecular mass of the surface-attached polymer chains. The concept of grafting polymer chains from cyclic peptide assemblies is highly modular with respect to the incorporation of a wide range of different functions. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ M. Tirrell, E. Kokkoli, M. Biesalski, Surface Science 500, 2002, p61-83.@footnote 2@ M.R. Ghadiri, J.R. Granja, R.A. Milligan, D.E. McRee, N. Khazanovich, Nature 366, 1993, p324-327.