CeNS researchers unlock strong piezoelectricity in peptides through molecular self-assembly

The findings could pave the way for flexible, sustainable and biocompatible energy-harvesting materials for applications including wearable electronics, implantable medical sensors, electronic skin and biosensors

Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, in collaboration with IISER Kolkata and JNCASR Bengaluru, have discovered a way to activate strong piezoelectricity in peptide-based materials without chemically modifying the peptides.

The study, published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, found that controlling how peptide molecules assemble can dramatically alter their electrical properties.

The researchers observed that peptides naturally form nanofibres in water but show no significant piezoelectric response. However, adding just 1% of a suitable co-solvent reorganised the molecules into a highly ordered supramolecular structure, triggering a strong piezoelectric response.

The transformation occurs through controlled chiral self-assembly, which aligns molecular dipoles into a non-centrosymmetric structure—a prerequisite for piezoelectricity. The engineered peptide nanomaterials achieved a piezoelectric coefficient of nearly 30 pm V⁻¹, notable for peptide-based materials.

The findings could pave the way for flexible, sustainable and biocompatible energy-harvesting materials for applications including wearable electronics, implantable medical sensors, electronic skin and biosensors.

Unlike conventional approaches that chemically modify biomolecules to achieve desired functionality, the study demonstrates that molecular self-assembly itself can be used to switch electrical properties on or off.

The research was led by Dr Goutam Ghosh and PhD scholar Aparna Ramesh at CeNS, with Sarbajit Layek and Prof. Neelanjana Sengupta of IISER Kolkata, and Tarak Nath Das of JNCASR.

The work highlights the potential of supramolecular chemistry and nanoscale engineering to develop environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional piezoelectric materials, while strengthening applications in sustainable soft electronics and healthcare technologies.