Solvent-mediated morphological transformations in peptide-based soft structures

Self-assembly is routinely used for the design and fabrication of new and advanced materials. Biological building blocks such as short peptides undergo self-assembly to reveal a variety of hierarchical structures such as nanotubes, fibers, and spherical structures. Peptide-based soft spherical structures are potentially useful for a variety of applications including vehicles for drug delivery and biological molecules. This report describes a tripalmitoylated triskelion ditryptophan peptide conjugate (5) that self-assembles to form hollow spheres along with pores on the surface when higher concentration of the dichloromethane was used, but forms fiber structures when heated in toluene solvent. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.