Aligned peptide nanotube arrays

Figure 6 A (a) Schematic of the formation of tubular (single or multiwalled), spherical, or fihrillar structures via dipeptide self-assembly, (b) Proposed model for the formation of aligned peptide nanotube arrays. Scanning electron micrograph of (i) the vertically aligned peptide nanotubes, (ii) the nanotube arrays, and (iii) an individual nanotube obtained. Reprint with permission from Ref. [7].

Yu, J., et al., Electron transfer through [small alphaj-peptides attached to vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays a mechanistic transition. Chemical Communications, 2012. 48(8) p. 1132-1134. 

Highly anisotropic ID nanostructures composed of closely packed nanoparticles have been prepared using linear macromolecular or supramolecular templates such as polyelectrolytes [2, 3], carbon nanotubes [2-5], DNA [6-9], peptide nanofibrils [10, 11], tubulin [12, 13] and bacteriophage and tobacco mosaic virus rods [14, 15]. Moreover, ID arrays are produced by spontaneous alignment of nanoparticles with intrinsic electric dipoles to form anisotropic chains of metallic nanoparticles, driven by heterogeneities in the surface chemistry and polarity of the nanoparticles [16]. These methods have been recently used to obtain defined nanostructures, predominantly in many steps and not defect free, with inhomogeneous metallic nanoparticle distribution. 

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