Issue 42, 2005
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry

Encapsulation of pyrene within self-assembled peptideamphiphile nanofibers

Mustafa O. Guler,a   Randal C. Claussena  and  Samuel I. Stupp*b  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
E-mail: mustafa@northwestern.edu, claussen@northwestern.edu

b Department of Chemistry, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL
E-mail: s-stupp@northwestern.edu
Fax: 1 847 491 3010
Tel: 1 847 491 3002

Abstract

Certain peptide amphiphiles (PAs) in aqueous media are known to form high-aspect-ratio cylindrical nanofibers with hydrophobic cores. Using cholesterol or palmitic acid as the hydrophobe and the biological adhesion epitope RGDS as the hydrophilic segment, we studied the encapsulation of pyrene, a small hydrophobic molecule, within the cores of the self-assembling PA nanofibers. Circular dichroism (CD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescence were used to characterize formation of the supramolecular structures. Pyrene excimer formation observed by fluorescence demonstrated the encapsulation and aggregation of pyrene within the hydrophobic cores. In addition, peptide amphiphiles covalently functionalized with pyrene linked to the hydrophobic portion of the molecule exhibited excimer formation upon self-assembly into nanofibers. Interestingly excimer formation was not observed in similar molecules that formed spherical aggregates rather than cylindrical nanofibers.

Graphical abstract: Encapsulation of pyrene within self-assembled peptide amphiphile nanofibers

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B509246A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Jul 2005
Accepted
17 Aug 2005
First published
09 Sep 2005

J. Mater. Chem., 2005,15, 4507-4512

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Encapsulation of pyrene within self-assembled peptide amphiphile nanofibers

M. O. Guler, R. C. Claussen and S. I. Stupp, J. Mater. Chem., 2005, 15, 4507 DOI: 10.1039/B509246A

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