Interaction of L-alanyl-L-valine and L-valyl-L-alanine with organic vapors: thermal stability of clathrates, sorption capacity and the change in the morphology of dipeptide films.

The strong effect of the amino acid sequence in L-alanyl-L-valine and L-valyl-L-alanine on their sorption properties toward organic compounds and water, and the thermal stability of the inclusion compounds of these dipeptides have been found. Generally, L-valyl-L-alanine has a greater sorption capacity for the studied compounds, but the thermal stability of the L-alanyl-L-valine clathrates is higher. Unusual selectivity of L-valyl-L-alanine for vapors of few chloroalkanes was observed. The correlation between the change in the surface morphology of thin film of dipeptides and stoichiometry of their clathrates with organic compounds was found. This discovery may be used to predict the influence of vapors on the morphology of films of short-chain oligopeptides.

Interaction of L-leucyl-L-leucyl-L-leucine thin film with water and organic vapors: receptor properties and related morphology.

The ability of highly ordered tripeptide structures to keep or change their morphology in contact with organic vapors was studied. A thin film of tripeptide L-leucyl-L-leucyl-L-leucine (LLL) was prepared having microcrystals and nanocrystals on its surface, which are stable upon vacuum drying but become objects of selective morphology change after a contact with vapors of organic solvents. Fine separate LLL crystals and their agglomerates of submicron and larger dimensions were observed by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. After saturation with guest vapors, these crystals can remain intact or change their morphology with the increase in size or complete destruction depending on the guest molecular structure. The crystals completely lose their shape after the binding of pyridine vapors. The other studied guests produce much smaller transformations or have no effect on crystal morphology despite being sorbed by solid LLL, which was shown using quartz crystal microbalance sensor. The observed size-exclusion effect for guest sorption by LLL was found to be broken by the same guests that can change the initial crystal shape. This helps to explain the morphology changes of LLL crystals after the guest sorption and release.