"Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" : using single amino acids as templates for biomineralization, and small self assembling peptides for the preparation of metal oxides, organization of metal nanoparticles and creation of new porous materials

Introduction
General concepts involved in the scope of this PhD Thesis are briefly presented.
Part I: Bioinspired iron oxide mineralization
Using single amino acids may be thought an over-simplification of larger proteins or
peptides. However, their use as model system already enables the understanding of some
crystalline phase selection processes. Some general rules about iron oxide biomineralization
in the presence of amino acids and thus, as an extension, in the presence of proteins are drawn
out of this study.
Part II: Small self assembling peptides and the transcription of their chiral information
into inorganic materials
Small self assembling peptides can be tuned to self assemble in organogels. The 3D
organogel self-organization scheme can be transcribed into inorganic materials using
processes involving metal alkoxide (sol-gel) technologies. The peptide synthesis and the selfassembling
motives, material synthesis (silica and anatase based materials) and
characterization are described in this part.
Part III: Using organogels to synthetize nanoparticles and to orient them on a peptide
fiber
Organogels prepared from two chemically and structurally similar peptides can be
mixed to prepare a homogenous 3D network which will present on its surface complexing
properties depending on the structure of the peptides chosen. This scaffold could be used to
organize nanoparticles or to prepare silver-based nanostructures. Peptides involved, their self
assembling schemes, the structures created and rationalization of this approach will be
presented in this part.
Part IV: Using small self assembling peptides to create new porous materials
The preparation of metal-organic frameworks using a slightly modified version of the
model peptide which was used througout the PhD Thesis is possible. We present here the
synthesis and spectroscopic and crystallographic characterization of the materials obtained.
Conclusions
In this section the achievements realized during the PhD will be discussed. Some new
tracks to further exploit these systems will also be introduced.