Inspired by the synthetic biology and biomineralization mechanism, a de novo designed biomimetic strategy is developed for the synthesis of metal oxide–metal nanocomposites (NCs) in aqueous solution under ambient conditions in this study. Via the screening of amino acids, it is found that arginine (R) can induce the formation of TiO2 and SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs), while tyrosine (Y) can reduce Ag+ and Au3+ ions into Ag and Au NPs, respectively. Subsequently, an artificial bifunctional peptide, arginine4tyrosine2 (R4Y2), as an example of this strategy, is designed to synthesize inorganic NCs including TiO2–Ag, TiO2–Au and SiO2–Ag, in which the positively charged moiety (R4) accelerates the polycondensation of negatively charged Ti or Si precursors, and the phenolic hydroxyl moiety (Y2) reduces Ag+ or Au3+ ions. This strategy may open an avenue for the green and controllable fabrication of a broad spectrum of inorganic NCs using artificial peptides as the inducer, designed rationally through encoding different parts of functional amino acids.
受合成
生物学和
生物矿化机制的启发,本研究开发了一种全新的仿生策略,用于在环境条件下合成
水溶液中的
金属氧化物-
金属纳米复合材料(NCs)。通过筛选
氨基酸,发现精
氨酸(R)可以诱导TiO2和SiO2纳米颗粒(NPs)的形成,而
酪氨酸(Y)可以将Ag+和Au3+离子分别还原为Ag和Au NPs。随后,以人工双功能肽精
氨酸4
酪氨酸2(R4Y2)为例,设计了一种合成无机NCs的策略,包括TiO2-Ag、TiO2-Au和SiO2-Ag,其中带正电荷的部分(R4)加速了带负电荷的Ti或Si前体的缩聚,而
酚羟基部分(Y2)还原了Ag+或Au3+离子。该策略为使用人工肽作为诱导剂,通过编码不同功能
氨基酸的部分进行合理设计,从而绿色可控地制备各种无机NCs开辟了一条新途径。