Interfacial Self-Assembly to Spatially Organize Graphene Oxide Into Hierarchical and Bioactive Structures

Multicomponent self-assembly holds great promise for the generation of complex and functional biomaterials with hierarchical microstructure. Here, we describe the use of supramolecular co-assembly between an elastin-like recombinamer (ELR5) and a peptide amphiphile (PA) to organize graphene oxide (GO) flakes into bioactive structures across multiple scales. The process takes advantage of a reaction—diffusion mechanism to enable the incorporation and spatial organization of GO within multiple ELR5/PA layers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ImageJ software were used to demonstrate the hierarchical organization of GO flakes within the ELR5/PA lay…