Controlling Supramolecular Chirality in Peptide-p-peptide Networks

Alkyl spacers of different length are able to influence supramolecular chirality as expressed in self-assembling nanomaterials.
Alkyl spacers of different length are able to influence supramolecular chirality as expressed in self-assembling nanomaterials.

Synthetic peptide libraries to probe chiroptical properties.

We found that carbon spacers between pi-conjugated electronic units and flanking peptide sequences had a profound impact on the superstructural chirality of the nanomaterials that form after self-assembly. The origins of this control were elucidated through computational analysis. These findings are of importance for chiroptical applications such as circularly polarized luminescence.

Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF)