The Physical Chemistry for the Self-assembly of Peptide Hydrogels

Peptide hydrogels have been widely used for diverse biomedical applications. However, our current understanding of the physical principles underlying the self-assembly process is still limited. In this review, we summarize our current understanding on the physical chemistry principles from the basic interactions that drive the self-assembly process to the energy landscapes that dictate the thermodynamics and kinetics of the process. We discuss the effect of different factors that affect the kinetics of the self-assembly of peptide fibrils and how this is related to the macroscopic gelation process. We provide our understanding on the molecular origin of the complex and rugged energy landscape for the self-assembly of peptide hydrogels. The hierarchical self-assembled structures and the diverse self-assembling mechanism make it difficult and challenging to rationally design the physical and chemical properties of peptide hydrogels at the molecular level. We also give our personal perspective to the potential future directions in this field.