The Physical Properties,Mechanical Properties And Applications Of Self-Assembly Peptide Materials

The self-assembly peptide materials have attracted interests of more and more researchers and become the hot point in the fields of biomaterials,environmental materials and medical materials.In a certain condition and environment,such kind of peptides can form highly ordered and complex self-assembly structures driven by hydrogen bond,hydrophobic interaction,?-? stacking interactions,ion complementary interaction or other interactions.By designing the sequence of self-assembly peptides,controlling the condition and process of the self-assembly,various kinds of the self-assembly structure can be achieved such as peptide hydrogels,peptide nanotubes,peptide nanosphere,peptide crystals,peptide nanofibers and so on.Due to the excellent biocompatibility,biodegradability as well as really simple synthetic protocol and preparation methods,self-assembly peptide materials own great application potential in the field of light-harvesting materials,3D printing materials,soft matter actuator,controllable drug release and supramolecular hydrogels.In this paper,we researched the physical and mechanical properties of the self-assembly peptide materials as well as the applications in the light harvesting catalysis system,light emission system,supramolecular hydrogel system and double network hydrogel system.The main contents in this paper are classified as follows:1.The light-harvesting system and catalysis materials based on self-assembly peptides.The light-harvesting system based on the peptides in which the sequence was phenylalanine-phenylalanine(FF for short)and porphyrin-phenylalanine-phenylalanine(MCpP-FF for short),including the self-assembly mechanism,microstructure,optical properties as well as catalysis rate,energy transfer effiency and recycling properties.The efficient light-harvesting catalysis systems and artificial photosynthesis systems were built,in which the conversion rate from NAD+ to NADH reached 25%.Moreover,the cycle efficiency of the systems kept more than 60%.These kind of light-harvesting system may have advantages on reaction efficiency,recycling and biocompatibility compared to other ones.2.The white light-emission hydrogels and applications based on the self-assembly peptides.We mainly studied the preparation method,chemical structure,mechanical properties,optical properties and microstructure of hydrogels formed by the peptide,in which the sequence is N-termianal-Bipyridyl-Phenylalanine-Glutamic acid-Phenylalanine-Lysine-Phenylalanine-Glutamic acid-Phenylalanine-Lysine-C-terminal.The cross linkings in the hydrogel contain not only the self-assembly of peptides but also the metal ion coordination.The applications of artificial light-emission soft matters based on the hydrogels were also given.As the light-emission platform,the hydrogel owns colorful emission lights as well as the pure white emission light.This kind of hydrogel covered the CIE value(0.33,0.33)and owned the advantages at self-healing properties,printable abilities and working effects in water,indicating the great potential of the peptide based hydrogel in the fields of programmable 3D printing materials and light-emission soft matters.3.The directly binding between metal ion and self-assembly structure of peptides as well as the applications of the hydrogel formed by the peptides.We studied the effects of the selective ion binding on the self-assembly mechanism,microstructure,forming rate and mechanical properties of the hydrogels based on the EFK8 peptides(N-FEFEFKFK-C,EFK8-? for short,N-FEFKFEFK-C,EFK8-? for short,N-KFKFEFEF-C,KFE-I for short ? N-KFEFKFEF-C,KFE-II for short).The directly binding between EFK peptide and aluminum ions in the second structure level was observed and proved.A kind of possible mechanism was demonstrated and the potential application in the protection of aluminum plate as well as the wide application potential was shown.4.The superamecular hydrogel actuators based on the self-assembly peptides.We studied the electrically controllable supramolecular hydrogcl actuators based on the self-assembling short peptide,in which the sequence is Naphthylacetic acid-Glycine-Phenylalanine-Phenylalanine-Dopa.This mechanical properties,electrochemically responsive properties,change of the microstures during the electrical manipulation and biocompatibility were studied in detail.As a proof of principle,we showed the designs of actuator devices to perform the unidirectional expansion and rotational motion under electrical stimulations.The applications of the actuators for controllable drug release and actuation of microfluidic devices were also illustrated.5.The tough double network hydrogels based on the self-assembly peptides and high polymers through covalent crosslinking.We designed a novel polymer-supramolecular polymer double network hydrogel(PS-DN gel)that bears mechanical properties similar to natural articular cartilage.It is stiff,tough and shows time-dependent stress-relaxation and fast recovery.Such a unique combination of mechanical properties makes it promising candidate for the hydrogel scaffolds for cartilage repair.We also demonstrated great designability of PS-DN gel,which mechanical properties can be tailored by adjusting the amount of different components.We anticipate that this new class of PS-DN gels can find broad applications for cartilage repair and the regeneration of other load-bearing tissues.