Article Title

Unidirectionally aligned diphenylalanine nanotube/microtube arrays with excellent supercapacitive performance

Authors

Jinlei Zhang, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Xinglong Wu, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Zhixing Gan, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Xiaobin Zhu, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Yamin Jin, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China

Keywords

FF nanotubes/microtubes, aligned growth, surface charge, supercapacitance

Abstract

High-temperature (150–220 °C) growth leads to the formation of some peptide nanotube/microtube (NT/MT) arrays but the NTs/MTs exhibit closed ends, irreversible phase modification and eliminations of piezoelectric and hydrophilic properties. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of unidirectionally aligned and stable diphenylalanine NT/MT arrays with centimeter scale area at room temperature by utilizing an external electric field. The interactions between the applied electric field and dipolar electric field on the NTs and surface positive charges are responsible for the formation. The unidirectionally aligned MT array exhibits a supercapacitance of 1,000 μF·cm–2 at a scanning rate of 50 mV·s–1; this is much larger than the values reported previously in peptide NT/MT arrays.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0455-6

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Jinlei Zhang,Xinglong Wu,Zhixing Gan,Xiaobin Zhu,Yamin Jin, Unidirectionally aligned diphenylalanine nanotube/microtube arrays with excellent supercapacitive performance. NanoRes.2014, 7(6): 929–937