Ferrocene-peptide bioconjugates

Abstract

This chapter sketches an outline of ferrocene-peptide bioconjugates. A variety of ferrocene-peptide bioconjugates have been designed to induce highly ordered structures of peptides and develop new biomaterials. The ferrocene serves as a reliable organometallic scaffold for the construction of an ordered structure via intramolecular hydrogen bonding, wherein the attached peptide strands are regulated in appropriate dimensions. Another noteworthy feature of ferrocene-peptide bioconjugates is their strong tendency to self-assemble through the contribution of available hydrogen bonding sites in the solid state. Furthermore, the ferrocene moiety of ferrocene-peptide bioconjugates is able to act as a redox-switching center and an electrophore in the receptors and biomaterials. 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.