Polymorphic Self-Organization of Lauroyl Peptide in Response to pH and Concentration.

Amphipathic peptides are attractive building blocks for the preparation of self-assembling, bio-inspired, and stimuli responsive nanomaterials with pharmaceutical interest. The bioavailability of these materials can be improved with the insertion of d amino acid residues to avoid fast proteolysis in vivo. With this knowledge, a new lauroyl peptide consisting of a sequence of glycine, glycine, d-serine, and d-lysine was designed.

Switchable length nanotubes from a self-assembling pH and thermosensitive linear l,d-peptide-polymer conjugate.

Preparation and characterization of a pH and thermosensitive linear l,d-octapeptide-poly(dimethylamino ethyl methacrylate) ((l-Val-d-Val)-PDMAEMA) conjugate is reported. The hydrophobic uncharged linear (l-Val-d-Val) octapeptide was designed to self-assemble in nanotubes by exploiting the tubular self-assembling properties of linear peptides with regularly alternating enantiomeric sequences. pH and thermosensitive PDMAEMA was obtained by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP).

Oxidized Buckypaper for Stir-Disc Solid Phase Extraction: Evaluation of Several Classes of Environmental Pollutants Recovered from Surface Water Samples.

This paper describes, for the first time, the use of oxidized buckypaper (BP) as a sorbent membrane of a stir-disc solid phase extraction module. The original device, consisting of a BP disc ( d = 34 mm) enveloped in a polypropylene mesh pouch, was designed to extract organic micropollutants (OMPs) from environmental water samples in dynamic mode. High-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used to analyze the extracts.

Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry identification of intermediates and vulcanization products by using squalene as vulcanization model compound.

Rationale: Sulfur-vulcanized rubber is a three-dimensional polymer network, insoluble in all organic solvents. For this reason, vulcanization products are difficult to study and identify by conventional analytical techniques. To simplify this task, low molecular weight olefins have been used as model compounds (MCs) in place of rubber in vulcanization experiments.

Metal chelates anchored to poly-L-peptides and linear D,L-α-peptides with promising nanotechnological applications.

Regular configurationally alternating amino acid sequences generate cyclic and linear helical peptides with a local β-conformation able to self-assemble in nanowires and nanoscaffolds directed and stabilized by hydrogen bonds. The possibility of modulating the chemical profile of the various amino acid residues containing reactive side chains means that peptides could be flexible templates for creating various building blocks. A method for the design of molecules with potential spintronic properties is described.