Piezoelectric properties and Young's moduli of diphenylalanine microtubes—oxide nanoparticles composites

ABSTRACTIn this work, we investigated the influence of piezoelectric ZnO and nonpiezoelectric SiO2 and TiO2 nanoparticles on the structure and some physical properties of composite structures based on microtubes of diphenylalanine. We demonstrated that all types of used nanoparticles promoted formation of voids and cavities in diphenylalanine microtubes thus reducing the effective Young's modulus and lateral piezoelectric coefficient of the composite. At the same time, embedding of piezoelectric ZnO nanoparticles provides noticeable vertical piezoresponse normally absent in single-component diphenylalanine microtubes. The obtained results demonstrate the ability to control the properties of self-assembling composite biomaterials by nanoparticles.