Synthesis and applications of bioinspired inorganic nanostructured materials.

摘要

Although the study of biominerals may be traced back many centuries, it is only recently that biological principles have been applied to synthetic systems in processes termed "biomimetic" and "bioinspired" to yield materials syntheses that are otherwise not possible and may also reduce the expenditure of energy and/or eliminate toxic byproducts. Many investigators have taken inspiration from interesting and unusual minerals formed by organisms, in a process termed biomineralisation, to tailor the nanostructure of inorganic materials not necessarily found biogenically. However, the fields of nanoparticle synthesis and biomineralisation remain largely separate, and this thesis is an attempt to apply new studies on biomineralisation to nanomaterials science.;Several significant achievements are presented: (i) the assessment of the relative ability of serum, serum derived proteins and their analogues to stabilize the amorphous state, (ii) the formation of single crystalline gold templated by an antibody, (iii) the formation of highly photocatalytically active nanoparticulate anatase by a phosphorylated cyclic esther, (iv) the formation of conical structures at the air liquid interface by the templating ability of a protein and (v) the optimisation of calcium phosphate nanoparticle mediated transfection in two cell lines by mechanical filtration.;Principally among the proteins that influence biomineralisation is a group comprised largely of negatively charged aspartic acid residues present in serum. This study is an investigation determining the ability of these serum proteins and other anolagous biomolecules to stabilise biologically relevant amorphous minerals and influence the formation of a variety of materials at the nanoscale. Three different materials were chosen to demonstrate this effect; gold was templated into nanosized single crystals by the action of bioorganic molecules, and the utility of these nanoparticles as a biosensor was explored. The influence of bioorganic molecules on the phase selection and crystal size restriction of titanium dioxide, an important semiconductor with many applications, was explored. The use of bioorganically derived nanoparticles of titanium dioxide was then demonstrated as a highly efficient photocatalyst. Finally, calcium carbonate, a prevalent biomineral was shown to form highly ordered structures over a variety of length scales and different crystalline polymorphs under the influence of a templating protein. In addition, an alternative route to producing calcium phosphate nanoparticle dispersions by mechanical filtration was explored and use as a transfection vector was optimised in two cell lines.