Nanowerk  May 15, 2021 Inspired by the formation of hierarchically structured natural biominerals (e.g., bone and tooth), various sequence-defined polymers have been synthesized and exploited for design and synthesis of functional hybrid materials. A team of researchers in the US (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington State University) created an altered protein-like structure, called a peptoid, and attached a precise silicate-based cage-like structure to one end of it. They found that, under the right conditions, they could induce these molecules to self-assemble into perfectly shaped crystals of 2D nanosheets. It has the programmability of a protein-like synthetic molecule with the complexity […]