CHAPTER 2 Mechanisms and Principles of 1D Self-Assembly of Peptides into b-Sheet Tapes Robert P.W. Davies 1,2 , Amalia Aggeli 1,2,* , Neville Boden 1,2 , Tom C.B. McLeish 1,3 , Irena A. Nyrkova 4 , and Alexander N. Semenov 4 Contents 1. Introduction 12 2. Model of Hierarchical Self-Assembling Chiral Rods in Solution 13 2.1 Theoretical rational of hierarchical self-assembling chiral rods in solution 13 2.2 Experimental evidence of hierarchical peptide self-assembly in solution 17 3. Responsiveness to External Triggers 25 3.1 pH 25 3.2 Ionic strength 28 3.3 Other 34 3.4 Heteroaggregates formed by complementary peptides 35 4. Peptide Self-Assembly on Surfaces 37 5. Conclusions and Future Prospects 39 References 40 1 Centre for Self-Organising Molecular Systems, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom 2 School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom 4 Institut Charles Sadron, Strasbourg Cedex, France * Corresponding author. E-mail address:a.aggeli@leeds.ac.uk Advances in Chemical Engineering, Volume 35 Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. ISSN 0065-2377, DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2377(08)00202-0 All rights reserved. 11