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Volume 7, Issue 6(Suppl) J Chromatogr Sep Tech
ISSN: 2157-7064 JCGST, an open access journal
Page 52
Notes:
Separation Techniques 2016
September 26-28, 2016
conferenceseries.com
Separation Techniques
September 26-28, 2016 Valencia, Spain
2nd International Conference and Expo on
Separation of chiral nanotubes with an opposite handedness by oligopeptide adsorption: A
molecular dynamics study
Giuseppina Raffaini
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
The separation of enantiomeric chiral nanotubes that can form non-covalent complexes with an unlike stability upon
adsorption of chiral molecules is a process of potential interest in different fields and applications. Using fully atomistic
molecular dynamics simulations we can study the adsorption and denaturation of an oligopeptide taken from human serum
albumin formed by 16 chiral amino acids having a helical structure in the native state on both the inner and the outer surface
of the chiral (10, 20) and (20, 10) single-walled carbon nanotubes having an opposite handedness, and of the armchair (16,
16) nanotube with a similar diameter for comparison. In the final adsorbed state, the oligopeptide loses in all cases its native
helical conformation, assuming elongated geometries that maximize its contact with the surface through all the 16 amino
acids. We find that the complexes formed by the two chiral nanotubes and the chosen oligopeptide have a strongly unlike
stability both when adsorption takes place on the outer convex surface of the nanotube, and on the inner concave surface. Thus,
the molecular simulations indicate that separation of chiral enantiomeric carbon nanotubes for instance by chromatographic
methods can indeed be carried out using oligopeptides of a sufficient length. Moreover, membranes formed by aligned chiral
single-walled carbon nanotubes of a given handedness might also act as chromatographic chiral selectors for appropriate
racemic mixtures, with also possible application in the field of proteomics. The favorable protein–nanotube interaction would
yield significantly different retention times.
Biography
Giuseppina Raffaini has received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and the Post-graduate Diploma at Advanced School in Polymer Science G. Natta; the
inter-university Master’s in Biomaterials in 2005 and PhD in Materials Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. In 2008, she became an Assistant Professor and
Associate Professor in 2014 at the Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests are molecular dynamics simulations of protein adsorption on biomaterials, inclusion
complexes and self-assembling of modified cyclodextrins. She is the co-author of 40 original peer-reviewed ISI papers (H-index Scopus=17), 2 invited reviews and
5 contributions to books.
Giuseppina Raffaini, J Chromatogr Sep Tech 2016, 7:6(Suppl)