engleski

Self-assembly of homo- and heterometallic complexes linked by artificial oligopeptides

Model biological systems such as DNA and proteins have long been the templates for the design of molecular assemblies of metallic complexes. By using the properties inherent in these biological molecules such as the ability for discrete self-assembly, structural variation, and information storage, mimetic systems can be designed that can optimize the traits that evolution has perfected into artificial systems that can have applications in electron and energy transfer. Artificial oligopeptides consisting of a polyamide backbone containing metal-binding ligands create the scaffold to study these properties. Assembly of these structures relies solely on the coordination of metals to these pendant chelating ligands. The versatility of the architectures of the oligopeptides allow for synthetic control over the geometry and denticity of the metal centers ; forming supramolecular inorganic structures. NMR analysis as well as mass spectrometry was used in the structural determination of the oligopeptide complexes. Optical absorption, emission spectroscropy, and electrochemical experiments were subsequently used to investigate the electronic properties of these assemblies.

self-assembly; metal-binding ligands; artificial oligopeptides

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