Photon management in supramolecular peptide nanomaterials

Self-assembling peptides with covalent pi-electron functionality offer new ways to create delocalized conduits within protein-based nanomaterials. My group's recent research is summarized in this regard, detailing foundational self-assembly and photophysical characterizations that validate the electronic couplings existing within the resulting peptidic nanomaterials. Using these initial studies as a benchmark, ongoing studies to create even more complex photonic energy delocalization schemes are presented, spanning excitonic and Förster energy transfer to low-bandgap dopant sites (whereby 46% of the observed photoluminescence could be quenched by the addition of 1 mol% of an energy acceptor), the creation of charge separated states following photoinduced electron transfer that persisted for over a nanosecond, and use of kinetic control to dictate self-sorting (at long time scales, ca. several hours) or intimate coassembly (at short time scales, ca. several seconds) of multiple peptide components. Peptide coassemblies are described that exhibit both directed exciton migration to low-energy sites and follow-up charge separation events, very much in mimicry with relevant photosynthetic processes.