Precise control upon self-assembly of chiral nanomaterial is very fascinating because of their wide application in biology and material science. In the study, we found that in the process of chiral self-assembly, water molecules play crucial roles in directing the self-assembly behaviour of a ferrocene-modified derivative of the diphenylalanine peptides. This leads to the formation of chiral hydrogels with stimuli responsiveness to a series of disparate stimuli, including solvent, pH, and temperature. The peptide self-assembly shows two distinct thermodynamic regimes, which are controlled by enthalpy and entropy, respectively, depending on the water contents. Meanwhile, at specific water content, temperature-driven chiral-interactions inversion in the peptide self-assembly happened. These results offer us new insight into the mechanism of hierarchically chiral self-assembly of peptides, which may guide the synthesis of more complex chiral nanomaterial in the future.

Probing solvent and temperature effects on the chiral self-assembly and gelation of ferrocene-diphenylalanine

2019 Spring National Meeting

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