Two water-soluble synthetic dipeptides, β-alanyl-L-phenylglycine and its retro analogue L-phenylglycyl-β-alanine form a new class of dipeptide-based nanoporous materials, which are composed of a hybrid of α and β-amino acids. These materials adsorb N2 gas with adsorption capacity of 173 cc g−1 and 71 cc g−1 and BET surface area of 56.76 m2g−1 and 41.73 m2g−1 for these dipeptides, respectively. Moreover, these nanoporous materials are found to be biodegradable towards soil bacterial consortium making them an interesting class of eco-friendly dipeptide-based nanoporous materials.