Magnetotactic molecular architectures from self-assembly of β-peptide foldamers.

Sunbum Kwon,Jintaek Gong,Eunyoung Yoon,Kyungtae Kang,Insung S Choi,Juno Lee,Sung Hyun Yoo,Beom Jin Kim,Hyung-Kyu Lim,Hyungjun Kim,Hee-Seung Lee

doi:10.1038/ncomms9747

Sunbum Kwon, Jintaek Gong + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9747

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Abstract

The design of stimuli-responsive self-assembled molecular systems capable of undergoing mechanical work is one of the most important challenges in synthetic chemistry and materials science. Here we report that foldectures, that is, self-assembled molecular architectures of β-peptide foldamers, uniformly align with respect to an applied static magnetic field, and also show instantaneous orientational motion in a dynamic magnetic field. This response is explained by the amplified anisotropy of the diamagnetic susceptibilities as a result of the well-ordered molecular packing of the foldectures. In addition, the motions of foldectures at the microscale can be translated into magnetotactic behaviour at the macroscopic scale in a way reminiscent to that of magnetosomes in magnetotactic bacteria. This study will provide significant inspiration for designing the next generation of biocompatible peptide-based molecular machines with applications in biological systems.

Highlights

The design of stimuli-responsive self-assembled molecular systems capable of undergoing mechanical work is one of the most important challenges in synthetic chemistry and materials science
This proof-of-concept experiment regarding peptide-based supramolecular machine demonstrates the capability of facile magnetic manipulation of diamagnetic organic materials in solution, which may offer a basic molecular system demanding for the development of potential biocompatible nano- and micromachines[22]
In summary, we showed that self-assembled molecular architectures of b-peptide foldamers align in response to an external magnetic field

Summary

Introduction

The design of stimuli-responsive self-assembled molecular systems capable of undergoing mechanical work is one of the most important challenges in synthetic chemistry and materials science. We report that foldectures, that is, self-assembled molecular architectures of b-peptide foldamers, uniformly align with respect to an applied static magnetic field, and show instantaneous orientational motion in a dynamic magnetic field. We show that foldectures can undergo real-time mechanical motions in response to an external dynamic magnetic field, and provide the detailed elucidation of the magnetic orientation of foldectures as well This proof-of-concept experiment regarding peptide-based supramolecular machine demonstrates the capability of facile magnetic manipulation of diamagnetic organic materials in solution, which may offer a basic molecular system demanding for the development of potential biocompatible nano- and micromachines[22]

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