Self-assembled arrays of peptide nanotubes by vapour deposition

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 materials. A significant challenge is to control the formation of large, homogeneous arrays of bionanostructures on macroscopic surfaces. Previously, bionanostructure formation has been based on the spontaneous growth of heterogenic populations in bulk solution. 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.