Peptide Brush-Ordered Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposite Materials

Organic-inorganic nanocomposites are synthesized through the surface-initiated polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides from amine-functionalized ordered mesoporous silica (OMS). Composites with high densities of grafted peptide were obtained which possess dramatically decreased porosity compared to the parent OMS material. The effect of the amine loading, pore size, pore topology, and monomer identity on the peptide brush layer obtained is investigated. Nitrogen porosimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, elemental analysis, infrared and NMR spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry verify the formation of the peptide brushes and indicate much of the organic phase formed is in the silica mesopores. The L-Lys(Z) peptide brushes can be deprotected on the solid surface as evidenced by thermal gravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and NMR spectroscopy. L-Ala peptide brushes may also be synthesized, and polymer growth confinement is evidenced by mass spectrometry as the number of alanine units per brush appears dependent on the silica pore size/topology.