| Biominerals and biocomposites are highly ornate and functional materials. Nature controls the properties of these materials by organizing their organic and inorganic constituents on the atomic, molecular, nano, and micron scales. The remarkable precision and complexity of this organization is accomplished using a combination of electrostatics, hydrogen bonding, disulfide bonding, and other molecular-level interactions.; The goal of the work described in this dissertation was to use the principles employed by Nature in the biological assembly of biomaterials as inspiration for developing (1) completely synthetic and novel composite materials, and (2) new general methods for the synthesis of composite materials. Specifically, block copolypeptides were used as structure-directing agents in several successful applications of this approach.; One application involves the rational design of an organic polymer molecule to direct the crystallization of calcium carbonate into microspheres. I have shown that the doubly-hydrophilic block copolypeptide poly{lcub}Nepsilon-2[2-(2 methoxy-ethoxy)ethoxy]acetyl-L-lysine{rcub}100-block-poly(L-aspartate sodium salt)30 can act as the structure-directing agent in this process. In addition, control over the morphology of calcium carbonate crystals can be exerted using anionic, amphiphilic block copolypeptides, such as poly(L-aspartate sodium salt)100-block-poly(L-phenylalanine- random-L-leucine)50 and poly(L-glutamate sodium salt) 100-block-poly(L-phenylalanine-random-L-leucine) 50. I have demonstrated that microspheres of calcium carbonate can be prepared by introducing the polymer additive during crystallization. These self-assembling polymers control the precipitation of the microspheres by acting as templates for sphere formation.; Another application involves the organization of magnetic nanoparticles into well-defined, soluble nanoclusters. First, I have demonstrated that highly crystalline, monodisperse maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3) nanoparticles, synthesized in organic solvents, can be transferred effectively into an aqueous medium using an ammonium salt. The nanoparticles remain monodisperse, as characterized by TEM and XRD, as well as superparamagnetic, as determined by SQUID magnetometry. Then when the aqueous maghemite is combined with the biologically-inspired block copolypeptide poly(EG2-L-lys) 100-block-poly(L-asp)30, the nanoparticles assemble into uniform clusters of approximately twenty nanoparticles. These water-soluble, block copolypeptide-nanoparticle structures have been characterized by TEM, SQUID, and XRD. Furthermore, I have shown that it is possible to tag the polypeptides with folate molecules (cell-targeting ligands) to produce magnetic microshells with potential applications in the biological imaging and drug delivery fields. |
