Weaving Genetically Engineered Functionality into Mechanically Robust Virus Fibers

Autor: Emílio C. C. M. Silva, Chung-Yi Chiang, Krystyn J. Van Vliet, Jiji Gu, Angela M. Belcher, Charlene M. Mello
Rok vydání: 2007
Předmět:
Zdroj: Advanced Materials. 19:826-832
ISSN: 1521-4095
0935-9648
DOI: 10.1002/adma.200602262
Popis: Despite the increasing need for material multifunctionality in optical and semiconducting fibers, antimicrobial textiles, molecular-filtration membranes, and other applications, the production of functionalized fibers has posed a challenge in materials science and engineering. Here we report the design and synthesis of fibers with genetically controllable and functionalized surfaces using M13 filamentous viruses (or bacteriophages). This work applies genetic engineering, chemical conjugation, and biotemplating methods to produce continuous fibers of centimeter-scale length and micrometer-scale diameter from nanometer-scale virus scaffolds. In addition, we find the virus fibers to be mechanically comparable to synthetic homopolymer fibers. The tunable functionalities and mechanical properties of the virus fibers show the promise of these high-aspect-ratio structures as useful materials for various applications including detection, catalysis, energy storage, and power generation. Increasing demand for tuning the molecular dimensions, structures, and functionalities in nanoscience has driven the search for materials with precisely controllable properties. Fibers are currently used in energy and electronic applications to obtain high energy density, energy capacity, and transportation efficiency, which may all be further improved by using nanostructured materials. [1–4] Synthetic polymers are commonly used as fiber materials; [5,6] however, as it is difficult to
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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