Biomimetic Control of Size in the Polyamine-Directed Formation of Silica Nanospheres

✍ Scribed by Manfred Sumper; Sonja Lorenz; Eike Brunner

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.200352212

✦ Synopsis

The intricate silicified cell walls of diatoms are probably the most outstanding examples of nanoscale-structured materials in nature. [1] The degree of complexity in these hierarchically organized biominerals has never been matched in artificial materials. [2] Nanofabrication of silica in diatoms occurs under ambient conditions at slightly acidic pH values and results from specific interactions between biomolecules and silicic acid derivatives. Such biomolecules are the silaffin peptides and long-chain polyamines (both of which were isolated from diatom biosilica [3][4][5] ) and the silicateins (isolated from sponges). [6] Silaffins isolated from Cylindrotheca fusiformis mainly consist of modified lysine and serine residues. The serine groups are phosphorylated and the lysine residues are