title: Hierarchical assembly of diphenylalanine into dendritic nanoarchitectures.
abstract: Highly ordered, multi-dimensional dendritic nanoarchitectures were created via self-assembly of diphenylalanine from an acidic buffer solution. The self-similarity of dendritic structures was characterized by examining their fractal dimensions with the box-counting method. The fractal dimension was determined to be 1.7, which demonstrates the fractal dimension of structures generated by diffusion limited aggregation on a two-dimensional substrate surface. By confining the dendritic assembly of diphenylalanine within PDMS microchannels, the self-similar dendritic growth could be hierarchically directed to create linearly assembled nanoarchitectures. Our approach offers a novel pathway for creating and directing hierarchical nanoarchitecture from biomolecular assembly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KI for the Nanocentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Hee
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Jun Kyun
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Gyoung-Ja
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Su-Il
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Pyun
authors.forename: Sang Ouk
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D002021:Buffers; D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry*; D004151:Dipeptides; D017709:Fractals; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009391:Nephelometry and Turbidimetry; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010649:Phenylalanine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D012996:Solutions
chemical_list: D002021:Buffers; D050091:Dendrimers; D004151:Dipeptides; D010455:Peptides; D012996:Solutions; C026650:phenylalanylphenylalanine; D010649:Phenylalanine