Silica Polypeptide Composite Janus Particles

Janus particles are interesting materials due to their inherent dual face properties. The ability to be able to have different functionalization and properties on a single particle allows these materials to be used for drug delivery and interfacial chemistry. Silica polypeptide composite Janus particles are unique because they are stimuli-responsive particles containing an organic polypeptide shell with an inorganic colloidal silica core, half of which is coated in chromium. The responsive nature comes from the polypeptide shell consisting of the homopolypeptide, poly (ε-carbobenzyloxy-L-lysine) (PCBL), which is known to exhibit a reversible coil-helix transition when dissolved in m-cresol. The silica core particle can be removed from the particle via etching to retain a hollow polypeptide vesicle, potentially with the chromium still bound to part of the vesicle. These can be used to study the conformational transition of the polypeptides while being structured but without being tethered to a solid surface. This will help to better understand the polypeptides role as a drug delivery vesicle.