Evolution of amphiphilic elastin-like co-recombinamer morphologies from micelles to a lyotropic hydrogel

- Amphiphilic elastin-like corecombinamer (ELR) can self-assemble in different ways.
- State changes from isotropic liquid to hydrogel with increasing concentration.
- The lyotropic hydrogel is based on nanofibrillar ELR arrangements.
- ELR fibrillar structure exhibits a hexagonal packing.

An amphiphilic, heat-sensitive, elastin-like co-recombinamer that exhibits different self-assembled concentration-dependent morphologies in aqueous solution has been studied. The spherical micelles observed at low concentration turn into small cylindrical micelles as the concentration increases. Further increases in concentration give rise to a lyotropic hydrogel. This hydrogel is formed by organization of the elastin-like co-recombinamer molecules into fibrillar structures exhibiting hexagonal packing. A simplified model to explain these concentration-dependent morphologies has been proposed.