Piezoelectricity

Peptide

Molecular engineering

Biology

Biophysics

Quantum mechanics

Composite material

Power (physics)

Generator (circuit theory)

Biochemistry

Nanotechnology

Tripeptide

Chemistry

Materials science

Amino acid

Physics

Nature Communications

Realization of a self-assembled, nontoxic and eco-friendly piezoelectric device with high-performance, sensitivity and reliability is highly desirable to complement conventional inorganic and polymer based materials. Hierarchically organized natural materials such as collagen have long been posited to exhibit electromechanical properties that could potentially be amplified via molecular engineering to produce technologically relevant piezoelectricity. Here, by using a simple, minimalistic, building block of collagen, we fabricate a peptide-based piezoelectric generator utilising a radically different helical arrangement of Phe-Phe-derived peptide, Pro-Phe-Phe and Hyp-Phe-Phe, based only on proteinogenic amino acids. The simple addition of a hydroxyl group increases the expected piezoelectric response by an order of magnitude ( d 35 = 27 pm V −1 ). The value is highest predicted to date in short natural peptides. We demonstrate tripeptide-based power generator that produces stable max current &gt;50 nA and pot...

Molecular engineering of piezoelectricity in collagen-mimicking peptide assemblies