Directed Assembly of Multi-Walled Nanotubes and Nanoribbons of Amino Acid Amphiphiles Using a Layer-by-Layer Approach.

Monodisperse unilamellar nanotubes (NTs) and nanoribbons (NRs) were transformed to multilamellar NRs and NTs in a well-defined fashion. This was done by using a step-wise approach in which self-assembled cationic amino acid amphiphile (AAA) formed the initial NTs or NRs, and added polyanion produced an intermediate coating. Successive addition of cationic AAA formed a covering AAA layer, and by repeating this layer-by-layer (LBL) procedure, multi-walled nanotubes (mwNTs) and nanoribbons were formed.