title: Electromechanical properties of an ultrathin layer of directionally aligned helical polypeptides.
abstract: The electromechanical properties of a monomolecular film of poly-gamma-benzyl-L-glutamate (PBLG) 15 nanometers thick grafted at the carboxyl-terminal end to a flat aluminum surface were measured. The field-induced change in film thickness, dominated by a large inverse-piezoelectric effect, demonstrates that the "grafting-from" technique forces the chains into a parallel arrangement. The mechanical plate modulus of the film as determined by electrostriction agrees with the theoretical prediction for a single PBLG molecule along the chain axis. The experiments show that ultrathin polypeptide layers with large persistent polarization can be fabricated by the grafting approach.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jaworek
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neher
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wegner
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Wieringa
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Schouten
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D011099:Polyglutamic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; C003172:poly-gamma-benzyl-L-glutamate; D011099:Polyglutamic Acid; D000535:Aluminum