Columnar Liquid Crystals Self-Assembled by Minimalistic Peptides for Chiral Sensing and Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Silica

We report the spontaneous formation of lyotropic liquid crystals from the self-assembly of a series of minimalistic peptides. The highly charged peptides could self-assemble into rigid helical nanofilaments in water and spontaneously order into hexagonal liquid-crystalline phases with interfilament separations of ≤240 Å. The formation of liquid crystals from the self-assembly of such simple peptides is dictated not only by the concentration and pH but also by the amino acid sequence of the peptides. Peptides containing the rigid Phe-Phe (FF) segment showed much higher propensities to form a liquid-crystalline phase with long-range order. Moreover, because of the intrinsic chirality of the peptides, the self-assembled birefringent liquid crystals could serve as sensing elements for the visual discrimination of chiral species and as templates for the biomimetic synthesis of mesoporous silica with ordered cavities. The results offer new opportunities for the design of peptide liquid crystals that are potentially applicable in sensing, biomedicine, and material science.