title: An Underwater Surface-Drying Peptide Inspired by a Mussel Adhesive Protein.
abstract: Water hampers the formation of strong and durable bonds between adhesive polymers and solid surfaces, in turn hindering the development of adhesives for biomedical and marine applications. Inspired by mussel adhesion, a mussel foot protein homologue (mfp3S-pep) is designed, whose primary sequence is designed to mimic the pI, polyampholyte, and hydrophobic characteristics of the native protein. Noticeably, native protein and synthetic peptide exhibit similar abilities to self-coacervate at given pH and ionic strength. 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (Dopa) proves necessary for irreversible peptide adsorption to both TiO2(anatase) and hydroxyapatite (HAP) surfaces, as confirmed by quartz crystal microbalance measurements, with the coacervate showing superior adsorption. The adsorption of Dopa-containing peptides is investigated by attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy, revealing initially bidentate coordinative bonds on TiO2, followed by H-bonded and eventually long-ranged electrostatic and Van der Waals interactions. On HAP, mfp3s-pep-3Dopa adsorption occurs predominantly via H-bond and outer-sphere complexes of the catechol groups. Importantly, only the Dopa-bearing compounds are able to remove interfacial water from the target surfaces, with the coacervate achieving the highest water displacement arising from its superior wetting properties. These findings provide an impetus for developing coacervated Dopa-functionalized peptides/polymers adhesive formulations for a variety of applications on wet polar surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrone
authors.affiliation: Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: YerPeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Jacob N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Israelachvili
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miserez
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: J Herbert
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Waite