abstract
Self-assembly of supramolecular biomaterials such as proteins or peptides has revealed great potential for their use in various applications ranging from scaffolds for cell culture to light-emitting diodes and piezoelectric transducers. Many of these applications require controlled growth,of individual objects in the configuration allowing simple transfer to the desired device. In this work, we grew millimeter-long diphenylalanine (FF) self-assembled microtubes with high aspect ratio via evaporation-driven crystallization of nonsaturated FF solutions, making use of the Marangoni flow in the drying droplets. The growth mechanism was investigated by measuring the microtube length as a function of time. Jerky (steplike) growth behavior was observed and explained by a self-activated process in which additional activation energy is provided through condensation. The calculated growth rate due to the diffusion-controlled process is in agreement with the experimentally measured values. The grown microtubes were successfully transferred to metallized patterned substrates, and their specific conductivity and piezoelectric properties were evaluated as a function of the applied voltage and frequency. A number of piezoelectric resonances were observed and attributed to different vibrational modes excited by the piezoelectric effect inherent to the FF structure.
keywords
ASSEMBLED PEPTIDE NANOTUBES; WATER; NANOSTRUCTURES; GROWTH; NANOMATERIALS; LUMINESCENCE; DIPEPTIDES; NANOWIRES; CRYSTALS; CHAINS
subject category
Chemistry; Crystallography; Materials Science
authors
Nuraeva, A; Vasilev, S; Vasileva, D; Zelenovskiy, P; Chezganov, D; Esin, A; Kopyl, S; Romanyuk, K; Shur, VY; Kholkin, AL
our authors
Andrei Kholkin
Principal Researcher
Konstantin Nikolaevich Romanyuk
Junior Researcher
Svitlana Kopyl
Researcheracknowledgements
The equipment of the Ural Center for Shared Use