Peptide secondary structure modulates single-walled carbon nanotube fluorescence as a chaperone sensor for nitroaromatics

Research areas:
  • Uncategorized
Year: 2011
Type of Publication: Article
Authors:
  • Daniel A. Heller, Jingqing Zhang George W. Pratt
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Volume: 108
Number: 21 Pages: 8544-8549
Month: MAY 24 2011
Note:
PT: J; TC: 8; UT: WOS:000290908000012
Abstract:
A class of peptides from the bombolitin family, not previously identified for nitroaromatic recognition, allows near-infrared fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotubes to transduce specific changes in their conformation. In response to the binding of specific nitroaromatic species, such peptide-nanotube complexes form a virtual "chaperone sensor," which reports modulation of the peptide secondary structure via changes in single-walled carbon nanotubes, near-infrared photoluminescence. A split-channel microscope constructed to image quantized spectral wavelength shifts in real time, in response to nitroaromatic adsorption, results in the first single-nanotube imaging of solvatochromic events. The described indirect detection mechanism, as well as an additional exciton quenching-based optical nitroaromatic detection method, illustrate that functionalization of the carbon nanotube surface can result in completely unique sites for recognition, resolvable at the single-molecule level.