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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Photoswitchable supramolecular self-assembly of amphiphilic peptides enabled by backbone-integrated spiropyran
Jinying He1,2, Meiqing Yang1,2, Yifan Zheng1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China. lichuang21@ustc.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Photoswitchable spiropyran (SP) is incorporated within the backbone of an amphiphilic peptide, enabling photoresponsive control of its self-assembly behaviour. In the dark, the ring-opened planar protonated merocyanine (MCH) conformation promotes the formation of fibrous nanostructures, whereas under irradiation, the ring-closed twisted SP conformation favours the assembly of micellar morphologies.
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