Enhancement of Durability, Sensitivity and Selectivity of Environmental Sensors & BioSensors by Peptide Nanotubes
The Technology
A Peptide NanoForest, is a dense array of self assembling organic nanotubes, capable of enhancing sensitivity and selectivity parameters of amperometric electrode high-performance sensors.
The patented Diphenylalanine (FF) aromatic dipeptide nanotubes are formed under mild conditions from inexpensive building blocks. These bioinspired materials have a unique mechanical strength. They have a high Young’s modulus of about 20–30 GPa. In addition, the inherent biocompatibility of the structures along with the options of their chemical and biological modifications, extraordinary thermal stability, and organic solvent stability, lead to a novel class of nanostructures for sensing applications.
Potential Application
The vertical arrangement of the peptide nanotubes enable the deposition of a larger number of nanotubes on the same surface, resulting in a remarkable surface area increase. FF peptide-nanotube-based sensors are benchmarked to CNT-based sensor, and clearly demonstrate the enhancement and sensitivity effect.
Patents
Three granted patents and three patent applications in various stages.
Supporting Publications
Characterization of Peptide-Nanostructure-Modified Electrodes and Their Application for Ultrasensitive Environmental Monitoring, E. Gazit & J. Rishpon et al, Small, 2010, 6(7):825.
Novel Electrochemical Biosensing Platform Using Self-Assembled Peptide Nanotubes, E. Gazit & J. Rishpon et al, Nano Letters, 2005, 5(1):183.
Peptide Nanotube-Modified Electrodes for Enzyme-Biosensor Applications, E. Gazit & J. Rishpon et al, Analytical Chemistry, 2005, 77(16):5155.