Self-Assembled Bio-Organometallic Nanocatalysts for Highly Enantioselective Direct Aldol Reactions.

Supramolecular nanocatalysts were designed for asymmetric reactions through the self-assembly process of a bio-organometallic molecule, ferrocene-l-prolinamide (Fc-CO-NH-P). Fc-CO-NH-P could self-assemble into versatile nanostructures in water, including nanospheres, nanosheets, nanoflowers, and pieces. In particular, the self-assembled nanoflowers exhibited a superior specific surface area, high stability, and delicate three-dimensional (3D) chiral catalytic active sites.

Self-Assembly of Peptide Chiral Nanostructures with Sequence-Encoded Enantioseparation Capability.

Biopolymers such as polysaccharides and proteins have been widely used for the chiral separation of various components due to the intrinsic chirality of the polymers. Amyloid-like short peptides can also self-assemble into diverse chiral supramolecular nanostructures or polymers with precisely tailored architectures driving by noncovalent interactions. However, the use of such supramolecular nanostructures for the resolution and separation of chiral components remains largely unexplored.

Protamine-induced condensation of peptide nanofilaments into twisted bundles with controlled helical geometry.

Chiral self-assembly of peptides is of fundamental interest in the field of biology and material science. Protamine, an alkaline biomacromolecule which is ubiquitous in fish and mammalian, plays crucial roles in directing the helical twisting of DNA. Inspired by this, we reported a bioinspired pathway to direct the hierarchical chiral self-assembly of a short synthetic dipeptide.

Polyamine-induced, chiral expression from liquid crystalline peptide nanofilaments to long-range ordered nanohelices.

We reported the condensation and transformation of peptide micelles into well-defined nanohelices through the incorporation of natural polyamines. The liquid-crystalline peptide micelles are assembled by a short dipeptide amphiphile driven by strong electrostatic repulsions and aromatic stacking attractions. By incorporating polyamines into the peptide solutions, like-charge attractions were achieved to induce the condensation of the like-charged nanofilaments into giant bundles.

In situ fabrication of multifunctional gold-amino acid superstructures based on self-assembly.

A facial strategy to construct multifunctional gold-amino acid superstructures is reported. The ferrocene-tryptophan conjugate could self-assemble into three-dimensional microflowers. What's more, gold nanoparticles could be biomineralized on the surface of the microflowers, achieving gold-amino acid superstructures.

Highly efficient and selective production of FFCA from CotA-TJ102 laccase-catalyzed oxidation of 5-HMF.

5-Formyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (FFCA) is increasingly important building blocks, which has promising applications in fuels, chemical intermediates, drugs, etc. However, highly selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) to FFCA by enzyme catalysis is a new challenging problem due to the absence of specific enzymes. Recently we identified a kind of laccase (CotA-TJ102) from Bacillus subtilis TJ-102 could convert selectively 5-HMF to FFCA, and no further oxidation production (such as FDCA).

Aromatic Motifs Dictate Nanohelix Handedness of Tripeptides.

Self-assembly of peptides and amyloid fibrils offers an appealing approach for creating chiral nanostructures, which has promising applications in the fields of biology and materials science. Although numerous self-assembled chiral materials have been designed, the precise control of their twisting tendency and their handedness is still a challenge. Herein, we report the self-assembly of chiral nanostructures with precisely tailored architectures by changing the amino acid sequences of the peptides.