Surfactant induced helix formation of cylindrical brush polymers with poly-L-lysine side chains

POLY 556

Manfred Schmidt, mschmidt@uni-mainz.de, Nikhil Gunari, Bin Zhang, and Andreas Janshoff. Physical Chemistry, University of Mainz, Welder Weg 11, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
ABSTRACT: The complex formation of oppositely charged surfactants with some polypeptides are known to induce b-sheet or helix formation. Here we report on the complex formation of cylindrical brush polymers with poly-L-lysine side chains and sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS). With increasing amount of added surfactant the cylindrical polymers first adopt a helical conformation with a pitch of approximately 15-20 nm followed by a spherically collapsed structure before eventually precipitation occurs. CD measurements suggest that the helix formation of the cylindrical brush polymers is driven by the hydrophobicity of the b-sheets formed by the PLL side chain-SDS complexes.