Nanocomposites of diphenylalanine (FF) and carbon based materials provide an opportunity to overcome drawbacks associated with using FF micro- and nanostructures in nanobiotechnology applications, in particular their poor structural stability in liquid solutions. In this study, FF/graphene oxide (GO) composites were found to self-assemble into layered micro- and nanostructures, which exhibited improved thermal and aqueous stability. Dependent on the FF/GO ratio, the solubility of these structures was reduced to 35.65% after 30 min as compared to 92.4% for pure FF samples. Such functional nanocomposites may extend the use of FF structures to e.g. biosensing, electrochemical, electromechanical or electronic applications.
Keywords: 100 Materials; 101 Self-assembly / Self-organized materials; 103 Composites; 104 Carbon and related materials; 30 Bio-inspired and biomedical materials; Diphenylalanine; aqueous stability; graphene oxide; nanocomposites; peptide nanotubes.