CHAPTER 5: Peptide Self-assembly Applied to Catalytic Asymmetric Aldol Reactions

Technological innovations using biomaterials have contributed to research for high-performance devices with specific functionalities. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the main aldolic reactions in water and the application of these methodological conditions in the self-assembling molecular processes of amphiphilic peptide compounds on catalysis. The efficiency of these molecules as catalysts was studied in the aldol reaction for evaluation of reaction yield and the stereoselectivity of the obtained products in water as a solvent, and is very interesting from both economic and strategic perspectives. The choice for these classes relies on the rich polymorphism of the mesophases they can form, as well as on their ability to establish biointerfaces through molecular recognition, thus increasing their range of applications in supramolecular systems and materials design. In all cases, comparison with the analog reactions in bulk solution shows that reactions in the inner space of these nanoreactors lead to a different reactivity in the formation of new products and/or isomers. In this chapter, special attention will be paid to the conformational preferences of these peptide derivatives and their self-association in solution.