Self-assembling nanofibers from Thiophene-peptide oligomers

This is work by Alexey Shaytan et al. at the Dept of Energy-Related Nanomaterials (Ulm University, Germany) on a large-scale fully atomistic MD simulation of the amyloid-like nanofibers formed by the conjugates of oligothiophenes and oligopeptides. Such compounds are very promising for applications in organic electronics (conductive organic nanowires).

The movies show the evolution of fibrils based on various intermolecular arrangements. The first is the evolution of single layer fibril based on antiparallel arrangement of beta-sheets. The second is the evolution of a double layer fibril based on parallel arrangement of beta-sheets. The third is the adsorption of a fibril on a graphite surface.