Self-assembly of an amino acid skeleton to form stable nanobelts and their functionalization

Abstract

Peptides and proteins self-organize to form various nanostuctures including nanotubes, nanospheres and nanowires via their molecular recognizability. Recently, aromatic dipeptide molecules have attracted numerous attentions because of the high thermal and mechanical properties of their assembled morphologies. An aromatic peptide molecules have attracted considerable attention as potential building blocks for fabricating nanostructures through self-assembly. The synthesis of a building block, β-benzyl γ-aminobutyric acid (β-benzyl GABA), which has a simple chemical structure, is reported in this thesis. β-benzyl GABA could be easily synthesized in a straightforward manner from (1R,5S)-bicyclic lactone. A SEM analysis revealed that the self-assembled β-benzyl GABA forms one-dimensional nanobelt structures. Furthermore, from SEM images and TGA data, it was observed that the nanobelts are thermally stable up to 200℃ under heat treatment. It thus appears that β-benzyl GABA building blocks could be useful in diverse fields of science and hold promise for biological and electronic device applications. They are also potentially useful nanoscale building blocks for bionanofabrication process.