Controlled self-assembly of modified aromatic amino acids

We report the self-assembly of carbobenzoxyphenylalanine (Z-Phe-OH), carbobenzoxytryptophan (Z-Trp-OH), carbobenzoxytyrosine (Z-Tyr-OH) and N-(9-Fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl)-O-tert-butyl-L-tyrosine (Fmoc-Tyr(tbu)-OH) to well-defined morphologies such as fibers, spherical and flower-like self-assembled structure. The self-assembled structure formed by modify single amino acids were characterized through various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. The self-assembled structure formation was studied extensively under varying concentrations and temperature and the mechanism of self-assembled structure formation was extensively studied through solution state 1H NMR. The self-assembly studies on modified amino acid provide an important avenue for the simple fabrication and design of novel materials with immense applications. Hence, Z-Phe-OH, Z-Trp-OH, Z-Tyr-OH, and Fmoc-Tyr(tbu)-OH self-assembly studies may be a pertinent extension in this direction.