Specific peptide sequences designed by inspection of protein–protein interfaces have been identified and used as tectons in hybrid functional materials. Here, an 8‐mer peptide derived from an interface of the peroxiredoxin family of self‐assembling proteins is exploited to encode the assembly of the perylene imide‐based organic semiconductor building blocks. By augmenting the peptide with additional functionality to trigger aggregation and manipulate the directionality of peptide‐semiconductor coupling, a series of hybrid materials based on the natural peptide interface is presented. Using spectroscopic probes, the mode of self‐assembly and the electronic coupling between neighboring perylene units is shown to be strongly affected by the number of peptides attached, and by their backbone directionality. The disubstituted material with peptides extending in the N to C direction away from the perylene core exhibits strong coupling and long‐range order, both attractive properties for electronic device applications. A bio‐organic field‐effect transistor is fabricated using this material, highlighting the possibilities of exploiting natural peptide tectons to encode self‐assembly in other functional materials and devices.

Synthetic peptides offer enormous potential to encode the assembly of molecular electronic components, provided that the complex range of interactions is distilled into simple design rules. Here, we report a spectroscopic investigation of aggregation in an extensive series of peptide-perylene diiimide conjugates designed to interrogate the effect of structural variations. By fitting different contributions to temperature dependent optical absorption spectra, we quantify both the thermodynamics and the nature of aggregation for peptides by incrementally varying hydrophobicity, charge density, length, as well as asymmetric substitution with a hexyl chain, and stereocenter inversion. We find that coarse effects like hydrophobicity and hexyl substitution have the greatest impact on aggregation thermodynamics, which are separated into enthalpic and entropic contributions. Moreover, significant peptide packing effects are resolved via stereocenter inversion studies, particularly when examining the nature of aggregates formed and the coupling between π electronic orbitals. Our results develop a quantitative framework for establishing structure-function relationships that will underpin the design of self-assembling peptide electronic materials.

Highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO-LUMO) tuning is an important consideration in the development of organic-based semiconducting materials. A study of the specific effects and overall trends for the HOMO-LUMO tuning of a diverse series of 9-fluorenones by means of extended conjugation and substituent effects is described. Trends were explored in a range of compounds, beginning with structures having highly electron-withdrawing substituents and progressing to structures having highly electron-donating substituents. Compounds with an incremental increase in conjugation were also examined. Electrochemical and optical measurements were used to calculate the HOMO-LUMO levels and HOMO-LUMO bandgap (HLG) for each structure. Results from both methods were compared and correlated with the differences in molecular structure. Increasing the electron-donating character of the substituents was observed to decrease the HLG and increase the energy levels of the HOMO and the LUMO, whereas an increase in the electron-withdrawing character produced the opposite results. Increasing conjugation decreased the HLG, increased the HOMO energy level, but decreased the LUMO energy level. Spectroscopic evidence of substituent influence on the carbonyl suggests that substituents directly impact the HLG by influencing the availability of nonbonding electrons within the carbonyl, which impacts the probability of an nπ* transition. The data presented not only elaborate on the HOMO -LUMO tuning of 9-fluorenone systems but also enable the consideration of 9-fluorenones as analogous models for HOMO-LUMO tuning in other more complex polyaromatic systems such as bifluorenylidenes. These trends may provide insight into developing materials with specifically tuned HLGs and HOMO-LUMO levels for a variety of applications.

1,2-Dehydropyrrolizidine alkaloids are common toxic metabolites isolated from plants within the Boraginaceae, in particular from the genera Heliotropium and Echium. Previous studies have deduced the structures of these often potent bioactives based upon mass spectrometric evidence, but these identifications have not established conclusive connectivity and configurational data. Herein, we describe the isolation and full structural characterization of echivulgarine, occurring in the pollen of Echium vulgare and correct the structure previously ascribed to the compound, using a comprehensive combination of both experimental and calculated nuclear magnetic resonance and electronic circular dichroism spectroscopic data.