Protein and peptide biotemplated metal and metal oxide nanoparticles and their patterning onto surfaces

Abstract

Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have many uses, and the size, shape and purity of the NPs must be uniform to ensure that the particles function in a known and consistent manner. The synthesis of uniform NPs usually requires high temperatures, high pressures, and harsh chemical reagents, which is both economically and environmentally costly. In nature, biomineralisation is used to produce precise, pure NPs, using far milder reaction conditions and reagents. Recently, a bioinspired approach has been adopted to produce NPs using proteins and peptides that: occur in nature; are artificially selected from a random peptide library by biopanning; or are rationally designed to control NP formation under mild conditions. Here we highlight the recent advances in metal and metal oxide NP binding and synthesis using proteins and peptides. We then investigate bioinspired patterning of NPs onto surfaces. This is done to demonstrate the possible avenues available to develop environmentally friendly, biotemplated devices and nanotechnologies in the future.

Taking a hard line with biotemplating: cobalt-doped magnetite magnetic nanoparticle arrays

“…13 Several biomineralising proteins and peptides have been identified or modified to facilitate the formation of a wide range of different materials in vitro. 14 Work has also focused on utilising biomolecules to biomineralise inorganic materials that are not found in nature including: gold, 15 silver, 16 FePt, 17 and CoPt. 18,19 For example, the cage protein ferritin has been used to template the growth of MNPs.…”

MnO2 Submicroparticles from Chinese Brush and Their Application in Treatment of Methylene Blue Contaminated Wastewater

“…1 The use of biotemplate makes the synthetic procedure simple and product controllable taking advantage of the nature of their own. Biotemplates like organisms (butterfly wing, 2 hair, 3 wood fiber 4,5 and pollen 6 ), microorganisms (bacteria, 7,8 fungus, 9,10 and viruses 11 ) and biological macromolecules (DNA, [12][13][14] RNA, 15 proteins, [16][17][18][19] and polysaccharides 20 ) were reported to prepare inorganic materials. Among these templates, proteins have gained more popularity by researchers, 21 ranging from ferritin, [22][23][24][25] bovine serum albumin (BSA) [26][27][28][29][30][31] to collagen [32][33][34] .…”

Functional and Selective Bacterial Interfaces Using Cross-Scaffold Gold Binding Peptides

“…Although this peptide was not used in other investigations, a derivative peptide, Midas-11, in which the tyrosine at position 11 was replaced with glycine, has been used in a number of follow-up studies. [44][45][46] In addition to the wide variety of gold-binding application studies, there has been a significant effort in the field towards understanding factors and attributing mechanisms behind peptide-gold interactions. Although extensive experimental and computational work has been performed, in part to formulate guidelines in designing gold binders, results have been highly varied and a definitive set of rules has remained elusive.…”