"Carboranyl-cysteine"-Synthesis, Structure and Self-Assembly Behavior of a Novel α-Amino Acid.

ABSTRACT: Substitution of the thiol proton in cysteine with m-carborane furnished 2-amino-3-(1,7-dicarba-closo-dodecacarboranyl-1-thio)propanoic acid (3), a boron cluster amino acid that exhibits self-assembly to form micron-sized constructs. Field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed that ethanol solutions of 3 form floret-shaped constructs, while fibrillar architectures are formed in water. Furthermore, slow evaporation of methanol solutions of 3 produced crystals whose structure was revealed by X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure shows that the hydrogen bonding interactions between pairs of 3 result in the formation of bilayers of 174 Å in length. The orientation of the clusters is not random in the crystal structure, such that the side-by-side aligned polyhedra are offset by 1

SUBMITTER: He T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5717241 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature