Terminal supraparticle assemblies from similarly charged protein molecules and nanoparticles.

ABSTRACT: Self-assembly of proteins and inorganic nanoparticles into terminal assemblies makes possible a large family of uniformly sized hybrid colloids. These particles can be compared in terms of utility, versatility and multifunctionality to other known types of terminal assemblies. They are simple to make and offer theoretical tools for designing their structure and function. To demonstrate such assemblies, we combine cadmium telluride nanoparticles with cytochrome C protein and observe spontaneous formation of spherical supraparticles with a narrow size distribution. Such self-limiting behaviour originates from the competition between electrostatic repulsion and non-covalent attractive interactions. Experimental variation of supraparticle diameters for several assembly conditions matches predi

SUBMITTER: Park JI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4405188 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature