Hierarchical Fiber Structures of Amyloid Fibrils through Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly
발표자
()
초록
내용
Amyloid fibrils are protein-based anisotropic colloids that are formed by the self-assembly of β-sheet aggregates. The helical ribbons have recently been highlighted as building blocks due to unique molecular functionality. But, to the best of our knowledge, there is little consideration about a combination between the molecular characteristics and structural properties. We try to integrate the liquid crystal (LC) properties of amyloid fibrils with evaporation-induced self-assembly. Aqueous amyloid solutions are sequentially dried under the restricted geometry and examined the highly ordered and aligned LC textures through a polarized optical microscope. The self-assembly mechanisms are rationalized from demonstrating the stick-and-slip action of amyloid fibrils in real-time. The morphology can be tuned by varying the width of the topographic templates and the resultant aggregates are used as templates for forming arrayed gold nanoparticles that show excellent conductivity.