The generation of nanostructured materials under mild conditions is a major research thrust given global environmental and energy issues.  Inspired by nanomaterial synthesis found in nature, biological material templates have been shown to create various nanostructured materials under ambient conditions. The diatom-based silica precipitating R5 peptide (SSKKSGSYSGSKGSKRRIL) is one prominent example.   R5 can also template other nano-scale materials, largely due the sequence's cationic nature and its ability to self-assemble into macromolecular templates that arise from amphiphilic segments of the peptide. In this work, R5 is conjugated to the surface of PAMAM dendrimers and used to template Pd nanomaterials.  Covalently linking R5 to PAMAM through the N and C termini alters the inherent self-assembly properties of the peptide.  These R5-PAMAM templates give rise to different morphologies of Pd nanomaterials compared to those observed for free R5, which can significantly affect the catalytic activity of the different materials.

Pd nanomaterials templated by R5-PAMAM dendrimer conjugates

245th National Meeting (2013)

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