Peptides are major players in the field of materials science, especially for health applications. Grafted or immobilized on surfaces, they are extensively used to afford biological functions to existing materials. They are also attractive building blocks to construct hydrogels and biomimetic materials. In our group, we proposed a versatile and generic bottom-up strategy to prepare peptide based materials. The approach relies on silylated peptides displaying hydroxysilane groups which chemoselectively condense through sol-gel process.[1] Depending on the type of silyl moiety (i.e. dimethylhydroxysilane, dihydroxymethyl silane, trihydroxysilane), on their number and on their position within the peptide sequence, a broad range of materials were obtained. We prepared porous catalysts[2], antibacterial or pro-healing silicone devices[3,4], 3D printable hydrogels[5], silica nanoparticles[6], linear or branched peptide-polydimethylsiloxane polymers[7,8].
To support this technology, direct synthetic pathways and purification procedures were established. We notably performed the solid phase synthesis of several hybrid peptides through the modification of amino groups. We now focused our efforts on an alternative solid-phase pathways relying on selective hydrosilylation of unsaturated chains. The scope of these reactions as well as their application in the synthesis of bioactive peptide dimers will be presented.