Bulk proton conduction in films from a truncated reflectin variant

Protein- and peptide-based proton-conducting biomaterials have been touted as particularly promising for bioelectronics applications because of their advantageous chemical and physical characteristics, typically excellent biocompatibilities, and readily understood electrical properties. Within this context, our laboratory has previously discovered and systematically investigated bulk proton conduction for a unique family of cephalopod structural proteins called reflectins. Herein, we leverage a combination of experimental and computational methodologies to investigate the bulk electrical properties of hierarchically nanostructured films self-assembled from a previously reported truncated reflectin variant. Our findings indicate that the truncated reflectin variant exhibits protonic conductivities and associated figures of merit on par with those reported for both full-length reflectins and other proteinaceous proton-conducting materials. The combined studies enhance current understanding of reflectins’ functional properties within the framework of bioengineering and bioelectronics applications and may ultimately facilitate the development of other protein- and peptide-based conductive biomaterials.