828295-68-7Relevant academic research and scientific papers
Carboxylate-imidazole cooperativity in dipeptide-functionalized gold nanoparticles with esterase-like activity
Pengo, Paolo,Polizzi, Stefano,Pasquato, Lucia,Scrimin, Paolo
, p. 1616 - 1617 (2007/10/03)
We report here the first example of peptide-functionalized gold nanoparticles hydrolytically active against carboxylate esters. The active units are constituted by His-Phe-OH terminating thiols. The confinement of the catalytic units in the monolayer covering the nanoparticles triggers a cooperative hydrolytic mechanism operative at pH 7 in which a carboxylate and an imidazolium ion act as general base and general acid, respectively. Such a mechanism is absent with an analogous monomeric dipeptide, and this results in a more than 300-fold rate acceleration of the hydrolytic process at low pH in the presence of the functional nanoparticles. Copyright
