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Letter
Nature Nanotechnology
Published online: 18 October 2009 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.298
Self-assembled arrays of peptide nanotubes by vapour deposition
Lihi Adler-Abramovich1,3, Daniel Aronov2,3, Peter Beker2, Maya Yevnin2, Shiri Stempler1, Ludmila Buzhansky1, Gil Rosenman2 & Ehud Gazit1
Abstract
The use of bionanostructures in real-world applications will require precise control over biomolecular self-assembly and the ability to scale up production of these materials1. A significant challenge is to control the formation of large, homogeneous arrays of bionanostructures on macroscopic surfaces2, 3, 4. Previously, bionanostructure formation has been based on the spontaneous growth of heterogenic populations in bulk solution1. Here, we demonstrate the self-assembly of large arrays of aromatic peptide nanotubes using vapour deposition methods. This approach allows the length and density of the nanotubes to be fine-tuned by carefully controlling the supply of the building blocks from the gas phase. Furthermore, we show that the nanotube arrays can be used to develop high-surface-area electrodes for energy storage applications, highly hydrophobic self-cleaning surfaces and microfluidic chips.
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