XPS investigation on the structure of two dipeptides studied as models of self-assembling oligopeptides: comparison between experiments and theory

The adsorption on TiO2 surface of two dipeptides AE (L-alanine-L-glutamic acid) and AK (L-alanine-L-lysine), that are 'building blocks' of the more complex self-complementary amphiphilic oligopeptides and are therefore a good model in the interpretation of the complex peptide spectra, has been investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The chemical structure and composition of thin films of both dipeptides on TiO2 were investigated by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Theoretical ab-initio calculations (ΔSCF) were also performed to simulate the spectra allowing a direct comparison between experiment and theory.