XPS investigation on the structure of two dipeptides studied as models of self-assembling oligopeptides: Comparison between experiments and theory

Abstract

The adsorption on TiO2 surface of two dipeptides AE (L-alanine-L-glutamic acid) and AK (L-alanine-L-lysine), that are "building blocks" of the more complex selfcomplementary amphiphilic oligopeptides and are therefore a good model in the interpretation of the complex peptide spectra, has been investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The chemical structure and composition of thin films of both dipeptides on TiO .2 were investigated by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Theoretical ab-initio calculations (△SCF) were also performed to simulate the spectra allowing a direct comparison between experiment and theory. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.