Adjustable photoluminescence of peptide nanotubes coatings

Peptide nanotubes (PNTs) have become a significant subject at the biological and bionanotechnology field. Here we describe the spectroscopic analysis of PNTs coatings, which were deposited by a physical vapor deposition technology. We show that we can adjust the electronic, and consequently the spectroscopic, photoluminescence (PL) properties of the PNT coatings, simply by changing the parameters of the PNT deposition. We show that by controlling the PNT deposition parameters we can observe different PL properties of the PNT coatings and significantly strengthen the PL in the visible blue region. We further explain that the strong blue emission is resulting from the conversion of the monomers to a different chemical structure. The strong blue emission, and our ability to adjust it, promotes the use of the PNTs as organic materials for light emitting devices.