Morphology and Pattern Control of Diphenylalanine Self-Assembly via Evaporative Dewetting

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• 作者：Jiarui Chen ; Shuyu Qin ; Xinglong Wu ; and Paul K. Chu
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：January 26, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：10
• 期：1
• 页码：832-838
• 全文大小：451K
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

Self-assembled peptide nanostructures have unique physical and biological properties and promising applications in electrical devices and functional molecular recognition. Although solution-based peptide molecules can self-assemble into different morphologies, it is challenging to control the self-assembly process. Herein, controllable self-assembly of diphenylalanine (FF) in an evaporative dewetting solution is reported. The fluid mechanical dimensionless numbers, namely Rayleigh, Marangoni, and capillary numbers, are introduced to control the interaction between the solution and FF molecules in the self-assembly process. The difference in the film thickness reflects the effects of Rayleigh and Marangoni convection, and the water vapor flow rate reveals the role of viscous fingering in the emergence of aligned FF flakes. By employing dewetting, various FF self-assembled patterns, like concentric and spokelike, and morphologies, like strips and hexagonal tubes/rods, can be produced, and there are no significant lattice structural changes in the FF nanostructures.