Assembly of quantum dots on peptide nanostructures and their spectroscopic properties

We present a chemical process for the decoration of self-assembled two-dimensional peptide fibrils with two different sizes of CdSe@ZnS core-shell quantum dots (Qdots) capped with trioctylphosphine oxide molecules. The attachment of the semiconducting nanoparticles to the fibrils is directed via disulfide bond between the quantum dot and cysteine aminoacids that are deliberately impeded in the peptide structures. A significant red shift in the emission spectra of the quantum dots is observed and attributed to the synergistic interaction between adjacent nanoparticles arranged on peptide film templates extending over hundreds of nanometers.