Silver nanoparticle and nanowire formation by microtubule templates

The synthesis of increasingly miniaturized structures using alternative techniques is strongly motivated by future applications in areas such as nanoelectronics. Highly ordered protein assemblies of tubular structure and high geometric aspect ratio are used as bioorganic templates for the bottom-up synthesis of metal nanostructures. When the biotemplate is coupled to an appropriate chemical reaction, metal is generated in situ and deposited along the backbone of the biostructure. Ag/protein structures with different morphologies are produced, from microtubules densely covered with small Ag nanoparticles to continuous Ag nanowires. Our results demonstrate the potential of bioassemblies in general for the fabrication of multidimensional structures with interesting material properties.