Affiliation:
1. School of Chemical Sciences and The Centre for Green Chemical Science University of Auckland Auckland New Zealand
2. The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology Wellington New Zealand
3. Department of Biomedical Engineering Pennsylvania State University University Park PA USA
4. Auckland Bioengineering Institute University of Auckland Auckland New Zealand
Abstract
Peptides have attracted great interest as platforms for the design of nanocomposite hydrogels due to their distinct bioactivity, biofunctionality and biocompatibility. Previously, we have reported on a family of peptides that self‐assembled to form stabilised three‐dimensional hydrogel networks, displaying potent antimicrobial activity. In this paper, we report on the use of these hydrogelator sequences and their analogues as stabilisers and growth controllers to synthesise anisotropic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different sizes and shapes. In particular, hollow spherical nanoparticles were obtained for HG2.81‐AuNPs, whereas hexagonal nanoparticles were observed for TOH_1N‐AuNPs and PentaOH‐AuNPs in their respective hydrogel networks. The PentaOH‐AuNPs' hydrogel exhibited excellent results with high antimicrobial potency against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and negligible cytotoxicity. On the other hand, TOH_1N‐AuNPs showed no antibacterial activity and no cytotoxicity, demonstrating the versatility of these peptides. This work gives credence towards the development of these materials towards further applications such as in tissue culture technology and wound dressing materials.