The use of organic compounds as templates to assemble inorganic materials with
structures over multiple length scales has received much attention due to the potential
applications that can be developed from these materials. Many organisms synthesize
organic/inorganic composites with exceptional control over morphology, physical
properties, and nanoscale organization of these materials. Materials such as bone, nacre,
and silica diatoms are excellent examples of the complex yet highly controllable
hierarchically structured materials nature can form at ambient conditions. The ability to
mimic these organisms through the design of supramolecular assemblies and use them to
direct the growth of hierarchically structured materials has increased significantly in
recent years.
In this dissertation, block copolypeptide templated inorganic materials were
synthesized and characterized using a wide range of analytical techniques. There are
three major conclusions from this dissertation. First, the conformation of a polypeptide
chain can be used to manipulate the porosity of oxide materials obtained. Second, individual supramolecular objects (vesicles) formed by block copolypeptides can be used
as templates to form nanostructured hard materials. Third, polypeptide chemistry and
solution conditions can be used to control both the morphology and porosity of the hard
materials they assemble.
This dissertation also describes preliminary work toward designing the block
copolypeptides derivatives for biomimetic inorganic synthesis and gene delivery. This
work includes the synthesis of these block copolypeptides derivatives and of the
templated oxide materials. Some interesting silica materials such as porous silicas and
silica nanocapsules were synthesized using double hydrophilic block copolypeptides
derivatives as templates. Also, the preliminary work of using these block copolypeptides
derivatives for gene delivery is included and shows these copolypeptide derivatives are
potential delivery vehicles.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4939 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Jan, Jeng-Shiung |
| Contributors | Shantz, Daniel F. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 6789076 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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