Role of Water in Directing Diphenylalanine Assembly into Nanotubes and Nanowires

Abstract

The controllable assembly behavior of diphenylalanine molecules to form nanowires (NWs) and nanotubes (NTs) and their structural details are presented (see figure). The nanoscale morphologies are closely related to molecular arrangements of diphenylalanine as revealed by Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction patterns and electron-density distributions in NTs and NWs via the maximum entropy method analysis.