Biotemplated Synthesis of Metallic Nanoclusters Organized in Tunable Two-Dimensional Superlattices

Biotemplating has emerged as a very promising approach to produce inorganic materials organized into well-defined architectures. In this paper, we combined both biochemistry and physical approaches to control the size and two-dimensional (2D) organization of metallic nanoparticles (NPs). We used self-assembled Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus and streptavidin 2D crystals as biotemplates for the growth of silver NPs by thermal evaporation. On the one hand, the tunable arrangement of the virus superlattices offers an unprecedented opportunity to control the NPs organization. On the other hand, 2D protein crystals allow the formation of perfectly periodic NP arrays, with a sub-10 nm lattice parameter and a very narrow NPs size distribution. These two UHV-compatible biotemplates allow the formation of organized NPs assemblies over long distance, which are stable over time.