Fmoc-Diphenylalanine self assembles to a hydrogel via a novel architecture based on π-π interlocked β-sheets

The self assembly of peptide hydrogelators that carry aromatic substituents can be modeled by a novel nanocylindrical architecture. The proposed model suggests that the nanocylinders are formed by anti-parallel beta-sheets interlocked by the pi-stacking interactions of fluorenyl groups and phenyl rings. This explanation is consistent with the structures observed in TEM and the data obtained by a variety of spectroscopic techniques.