Nature has perfected the synthesis of inorganic materials and organic-inorganic architectures in aqueous environments and under mild physiological conditions. We use M13 bacteriophage, or phage, to harness the power nature has over interactions between proteins or peptides and inorganic materials. Through peptide phage display, we have identified a library of short peptide sequences with specificity for inorganic materials, which we refer to as specific peptides. These specific peptides have been used to develop a technique to magnetically separate target nanomaterials from solutions containing a mixture of nanomaterials. In addition, we have exploited nonspecific interactions of surface peptides with metal salts to create nanoarchitectures of phage decorated with metal nanoparticles. We have also developed a room-temperature aqueous method to synthesize nanoparticles of the metastable alloys Au-Rh, Au-Pt, Pt-Rh, and Pd-Rh, which we can anchor to phage to reduce agglomeration.

Biomimetic techniques and aqueous, room temperature synthesis in inorganic nanotechnology

244th National Meeting (2012)

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