Journal
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 33, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac34a6
Keywords
SNOM; terahertz nanoscopy; peptide; nanowires
Funding
- Australian Research Council [DP150100268, DP140103653, DP200101948, DP210103342]
- Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
- Australian Research Council [DP200101948] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
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In this study, a non-destructive measurement technique based on terahertz scanning near-field microscope was used to investigate the conductivity of synthetic peptide nanowires. The results showed that the sample incorporating aromatic residues was about six times more conductive than the negative control. This is the first quantitative nano-scale terahertz s-SNOM investigation of peptides, which demonstrates the suitability of the non-destructive approach in combination with designer peptides as model test subjects.
Significant efforts have recently been invested in assessing the physical and chemical properties of microbial nanowires for their promising role in developing alternative renewable sources of electricity, bioelectronic materials and implantable sensors. One of their outstanding properties, the ever-desirable conductivity has been the focus of numerous studies. However, the lack of a straightforward and reliable method for measuring it seems to be responsible for the broad variability of the reported data. Routinely employed methods tend to underestimate or overestimate conductivity by several orders of magnitude. In this work, synthetic peptide nanowires conductivity is interrogated employing a non-destructive measurement technique developed on a terahertz scanning near-field microscope to test if peptide aromaticity leads to higher electrical conductivity. Our novel peptide conductivity measurement technique, based on triple standards calibration method, shows that in the case of two biopolymer mimicking peptides, the sample incorporating aromatic residues (W6) is about six times more conductive than the negative control (L6). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a quantitative nano-scale terahertz s-SNOM investigation of peptides. These results prove the suitability of the terahertz radiation-based non-destructive approach in tandem with the designer peptides choice as model test subjects. This approach requires only simple sample preparation, avoids many of the pitfalls of typical contact-based conductivity measurement techniques and could help understanding fundamental aspects of nature's design of electron transfer in biopolymers.
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