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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Switching in of Ac-(Ala)10-NHMe at a solid surface
Mark J Biggs1, Milan Mijajlovic
1Institute for Materials and Processes, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. m.biggs@ed.ac.uk
Abstract:
Using molecular simulation, we show how Ac-(Ala)(10)-NHMe adsorbed on a solid surface switches between three conformations at distinct surface energies. The first switch is from an alpha-helix to a 3.1(10)-helix. The second involves further stretching to a 2(7)-helix. This switching has several potential applications including memory in molecular computers to motility elements in nanotechnology, and could be relevant to biological activity of proteins near solid surfaces (e.g., nano and aerosol particles) and disease processes induced by such interactions.
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