Figure 7.

(a) Chemical structure of polyisoprene and oligoalanine prepolymers used by Shao and coworkers [101] to synthesize silk-mimetic polymers based on step-growth polymerization. (b) Self-assembly of these silk-mimetic polymers (PEP-PI2200) into β-sheet structures as demonstrated by characteristic sharp Bragg peaks in WAXD compared to silk-mimetic polymers with a longer polyisoprene chain (PEP-PI5000) or polyisoprene alone (PI5000). (c) Formation “plum blossom” micellar structures by self-assembly of these silk-mimetic polymers. (b) and (c) are Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society, reproduced with permission from [101].