PIAA
Poly(isocyano-L-alanine-L-alanine)
PIAH
Poly(isocyano-L-alanine-L-histidine)
PLeu
Poly(L-leucine)
PLGA
Poly(L-glutamic acid)
PLL
Poly(L-lysine)
PMLG
Poly(γ-methyl L-glutamate)
PNIPAm Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
POM
Polarizing optical micrograph
PPLA
Poly(β-phenethyl L-aspartate)
PZLys
Poly(ε-carbobenzoxy L-lysine)
S
Periodicity of cholesteric LC
SAXD
Small-angle X-ray diffraction
SAXS
Small-angle X-ray scattering
SEM
Scanning electron microscopy
SFM
Scanning force microscopy
TCE
Trichloroethylene
TEM
Transmission electron microscopy
TFA
Trifluoroacetic acid
THF
Tetrahydrofuran
1 Introduction
Over the past few decades, increasing attention has been paid to synthetic polypeptide
materials, including their syntheses, properties, and applications [1–14]. Polypeptides
are derived from amino acids and their derivates. The continuing interest in
polypeptides is mainly stimulated by their close relationship with proteins.
Polypeptides can be used as a model system for protein research. Learning from
natural proteins, polypeptides with diverse structures and functionalities have been
widely synthesized and studied. The biorelated applications of the polypeptides and
their assemblies are active topics of current research.
Polypeptides can be synthesized through biological and chemical methods [15].
In biological strategies, pure polypeptides with exact molecular weights and
identical monomer sequences can be obtained [16–18]. Chemical techniques can be
applied to prepare polypeptides with high molecular weights and are also advantageous for preparing polypeptide–polymer conjugates [19–25]. The most applied
chemical method for polypeptide synthesis is the N-carboxyanhydride (NCA)
route, which was first proposed by Leuchs about 100 years ago [26]. The synthesis
of high molecular weight polypeptides and diverse polypeptide–polymer
conjugates makes the research on polypeptides an active topic.
One of the unique properties of polypeptides is that they can adopt various
conformations such as intramolecularly H-bonded α-helix, intermolecularly
H-bonded extended β-sheet, and flexible random coil [5, 27]. For high molecular
weight polypeptides, the α-helix conformation is a predominate structure.
Ordering of Polypeptides in Liquid Crystals, Gels and Micelles
161
Poly(isocyano-L-alanine-L-alanine)
PIAH
Poly(isocyano-L-alanine-L-histidine)
PLeu
Poly(L-leucine)
PLGA
Poly(L-glutamic acid)
PLL
Poly(L-lysine)
PMLG
Poly(γ-methyl L-glutamate)
PNIPAm Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
POM
Polarizing optical micrograph
PPLA
Poly(β-phenethyl L-aspartate)
PZLys
Poly(ε-carbobenzoxy L-lysine)
S
Periodicity of cholesteric LC
SAXD
Small-angle X-ray diffraction
SAXS
Small-angle X-ray scattering
SEM
Scanning electron microscopy
SFM
Scanning force microscopy
TCE
Trichloroethylene
TEM
Transmission electron microscopy
TFA
Trifluoroacetic acid
THF
Tetrahydrofuran
1 Introduction
Over the past few decades, increasing attention has been paid to synthetic polypeptide
materials, including their syntheses, properties, and applications [1–14]. Polypeptides
are derived from amino acids and their derivates. The continuing interest in
polypeptides is mainly stimulated by their close relationship with proteins.
Polypeptides can be used as a model system for protein research. Learning from
natural proteins, polypeptides with diverse structures and functionalities have been
widely synthesized and studied. The biorelated applications of the polypeptides and
their assemblies are active topics of current research.
Polypeptides can be synthesized through biological and chemical methods [15].
In biological strategies, pure polypeptides with exact molecular weights and
identical monomer sequences can be obtained [16–18]. Chemical techniques can be
applied to prepare polypeptides with high molecular weights and are also advantageous for preparing polypeptide–polymer conjugates [19–25]. The most applied
chemical method for polypeptide synthesis is the N-carboxyanhydride (NCA)
route, which was first proposed by Leuchs about 100 years ago [26]. The synthesis
of high molecular weight polypeptides and diverse polypeptide–polymer
conjugates makes the research on polypeptides an active topic.
One of the unique properties of polypeptides is that they can adopt various
conformations such as intramolecularly H-bonded α-helix, intermolecularly
H-bonded extended β-sheet, and flexible random coil [5, 27]. For high molecular
weight polypeptides, the α-helix conformation is a predominate structure.
Ordering of Polypeptides in Liquid Crystals, Gels and Micelles
161