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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
Facile Preparation of Internally Self-assembled Lipid Particles Stabilized by Carbon Nanotubes
Published on: February 19, 2016
Self-assembling peptide coatings designed for highly luminescent suspension of single-walled carbon nanotubes
Dmitri A Tsyboulski1, Erica L Bakota, Leah S Witus
1Department of Chemistry, R.E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
Abstract:
A series of self-assembling multidomain peptides have been designed, synthesized, and tested for their ability to individually suspend single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in water while preserving strong near-IR nanotube luminescence. Photometric and spectral measurements on individual SWCNTs revealed that emission in the common biocompatible coating agents Pluronic F127, ss-DNA, and BSA is approximately an order of magnitude weaker than in the bioincompatible ionic surfactant SDBS. By contrast, one of the engineered peptides gave SWCNT emission approximately 40% as intense as in SDBS. A strong inverse correlation was also found between the spectral line widths of coated SWCNTs and the efficiency of their emission. Peptides with rationally designed self-assembly properties appear to be promising coatings that may enable SWCNT optical sensing applications in biological environments.
