Selective Self-assembly of Gold Nanocrystals Using Complementary Leucine Zipper Peptides

Abstract

Abstract A heterodimeric leucine zipper (Lz)–based peptide hybrid was utilized as a molecular adhesive to bind two types of gold nanocrystals with different shapes. An acidic leucine zipper (LzE) and a basic leucine zipper (LzK) peptides with terminal cysteine are respectively adsorbed to the surface of spherical gold nanoparticles (LzE–Au NPs) and gold nanocubes (LzK–Au NCs). Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation and visible (Vis) absorption spectroscopy revealed that LzE–Au NPs and LzK–Au NCs are selectively self-assembled in water. The dynamic self-assembly behavior is also confirmed by in-situ fluorescence resonance energy transfer between fluorescence dyes connected to LzE and LzK peptides and other control experiments.