To control the morphology and improve the mechanical properties of conducting polymers, a short silk-inspired peptide capable of self-assembly was installed directly onto a thiophene-based monomer. Self-assembly of the peptide was found to drive 2D organization of the covalently linked monomer, and at high concentrations produced a 3D gel with a fibrous, porous structure. Subsequent polymerization of the thiophene monomer following self-assembly resulted in the formation of electrically conductive gels that retain the fibrous structures. Changes in concentration, temperature, solvent, pH, and amino acid sequence of the peptide was found to influence the 2D and higher-order 3D structures, producing materials with unique morphologies. This simple yet powerful method can be further exploited to produce conducting polymers with controlled nanoscale organization for use in a variety of biomedical applications.

Controlling nanoscale organization of thiophene-based conducting polymers with self-assembling peptides

251st National Meeting (2016)

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