Fabrication of High Aspect Ratio Gold Nanowires within theMicrotubule Lumen

Gold nanowires have great potential use asinterconnects in electronic, photonic, and optoelectronic devices.To date, there are various fabrication strategies for gold nanowires,each one associated with particular drawbacks as they utilize hightemperatures, toxic chemicals, or expensive compounds to producenanowires of suboptimal quality. Inspired by nanowire fabricationstrategies that used higher-order biopolymer structures as moldsfor electroless deposition of gold, we here report a strategy for thegrowth of gold nanowires from seed nanoparticles within thelumen of microtubules. Luminal targeting of seed particles occursthrough covalently linked Fab fragments of an antibodyrecognizing the acetylated lysine 40 on the luminal side of alpha-tubulin. Gold nanowires grown by electroless deposition within themicrotubule lumen exhibit a homogeneous morphology and high aspect ratios with a mean diameter of 20 nm. Our approach is fast,simple, and inexpensive and does not require toxic chemicals or other harsh conditions

Automated summary

Gold nanowires have great potential for use in electronic, photonic, and optoelectronic devices. Current fabrication strategies have drawbacks such as high temperatures, toxic chemicals, or expensive compounds. This study presents a strategy for growing gold nanowires from seed nanoparticles within the lumen of microtubules, which is fast, simple, inexpensive, and does not require toxic chemicals or other harsh conditions.