Photo-Induced Polymerization and Reconfigurable Assembly of Multifunctional Ferrocene-Tyrosine

August 13, 2018

Title

Photo-Induced Polymerization and Reconfigurable Assembly of Multifunctional Ferrocene-Tyrosine

Author

Xuejiao Yang, Yuefei Wang, Wei Qi, Jiaxing Zhang, Liwei Zhang, Renliang Huang, Rongxin Su, Zhimin He

Year

2018

Journal

Small

Abstract

The photo-induced reconfigurable assembly of nanostructures via the
simultaneous noncovalent and covalent polymerization of a functional
ferrocene-tyrosine (Fc-Y) molecule is reported. The Fc-Y monomers can directly
self-assemble into nanospheres with a smooth surface driven by noncovalent
interactions. By covalent photo-crosslinking of the Fc-Y monomers, the
nanospheres transform spontaneously into hollow vesicles composed of
hierarchically ordered lamellar structures. It is worth noting that the formed nanostructures exhibit both reducing property for in situ mineralization of gold nanoparticles with tunable biocatalytic behavior, and the redox activity for superior energy storage capacity. The measured energy storage capacity is 31 mAh g−1 for the nanospheres, which is the highest value reported so far for peptide assemblages as supercapacitor. The results offer insights into the dynamic self assembly of highly ordered multifunctional materials with promising applications in catalysis, sensing, energy and biomedical fields.

Instrument

J-810

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Nanostructures, Biochemistry, Materials