Abstract
In two-dimensional interfacial assemblies, there is an interplay between molecular ordering and interface geometry, which determines the final morphology and order of entire systems. Here we present the interfacial phenomenon of spontaneous facet formation in a water droplet driven by designed peptide assembly. The identified peptides can flatten the rounded top of a hemispherical droplet into a plane by forming a macroscopic two-dimensional crystal structure. Such ordering is driven by the folding geometry of the peptide, interactions of tyrosine and crosslinked stabilization by cysteine. We discover the key sequence motifs and folding structures and study their sequence-specific assembly. The well-ordered, densely packed, redox-active tyrosine units in the YYACAYY (H-Tyr-Tyr-Ala-Cys-Ala-Tyr-Tyr-OH) film can trigger or enhance chemical/electrochemical reactions, and can potentially serve as a platform to fabricate a molecularly tunable, self-repairable, flat peptide or hybrid film.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 3665 |
Journal | Nature communications |
Volume | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 Apr 11 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Hye-Rim So and Professor Han-Bin Oh in Sogang University for MALDI analysis. We also appreciate the comments from Professor Romas Kazlauskas in the University of Minnesota. This work is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) under the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Pioneer Research Center Program (2011-0027888) of NRF. K.T.N. thanks the support of the Basic Science Research (2011-0011225) and Global Frontier R&D program on Center for Multiscale Energy System (0420-20130104) and the Fusion Research Program for Green Technologies through NRF the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future (2012M3C1A1048863). H.N.H. was supported by Basic Science Research Programme through the National Research Foundation in Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2013008806).
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Physics and Astronomy