Synthetic polypeptides are of great interest as a result of their potential applications in (bio)nanotechnology, especially in regenerative nanomedicine, tissue engineering and polymer therapeutics. Given the large family of amino acids (both natural and synthetic), polypeptides can be engineered to display a myriad of tunable chemical and physical functionalities whilst maintaining excellent biocompatibility and degradability. Previously, we reported the formation of free-standing peptide films via surface-initiated ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (NCA) (grafting-from) in combination with cross-chain termination,1and have recently introduced novel polypeptide films stabilised solely via H-bonded β-sheet secondary structures.2 In the present study, we report the unique properties of these free-standing films for the non-covalent entrapment of various materials ranging from metal nanoparticles, to synthetic polymers, to intercalating drug molecules (Scheme 1). The entrapment of Pd(0) nanoparticles provides access to recyclable peptide-metal hybrids with high catalytic efficiency. Meanwhile, the simultaneous entrapment of doxorubicin (drug) and poly(ethylene glycol) provides the opportunity to design drug carriers with tunable interfacial properties (e.g., low protein fouling). Collectively, this study highlights the unique entrapment capabilities of the β-sheet stabilised polypeptide films and establishes a simple and versatile strategy to prepare multifunctional materials with potential application to tandem organic catalysis and targeted drug-delivery. 1. S. H. Wibowo, E. H. H. Wong, A. Sulistio, S. N. Guntari, A. Blencowe, F. Caruso and G. G. Qiao, Adv. Mater., 2013, 25, 4619-4624. 2. S. H. Wibowo, A. Sulistio, E. Wong, A. Blencowe and G. G. Qiao, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2014, in preparation. Oral presentation title: Formation of β-sheet Hollow Microspheres by Surface-Anchored Peptide Assembly

Functional β-sheet stabilized polypeptide microspheres by NCA-ROP and noncovalent entrapment

249th National Meeting (2015)

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