Structure of single-wall peptide nanotubes: in situ flow aligning X-ray diffraction

Castelletto, V., Nutt, D. R., Hamley, I. W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4549-0926, Bucak, S., Cenker, Ç. and Olsson, U. (2010) Structure of single-wall peptide nanotubes: in situ flow aligning X-ray diffraction. Chemical Communications, 46 (34). pp. 6270-6272. ISSN 1359-7345 doi: 10.1039/c0cc00212g

Abstract/Summary

The structure of single wall peptide nanotubes is presented for the model surfactant-like peptide A6K. Capillary flow alignment of a sample in the nematic phase at high concentration in water leads to oriented X-ray diffraction patterns. Analysis of these, accompanied by molecular dynamics simulations, suggests the favourable self-assembly of antiparallel peptide dimers into beta-sheet ribbons that wrap helically to form the nanotube wall.