Biosilica from diatoms microalgae: smart materials from bio-medicine to photonics
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Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro,” Bari 70125, Italy
Stefania Cicco CNR Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organometallici, Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro,” Bari 70125, Italy
Danilo Vona, Gabriella Leone, and Gianluca M. Farinolaa)
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro,” Bari 70125, Italy (Received 5 August 2016; accepted 7 November 2016)
Diatoms microalgae can be regarded as living factories producing nanostructured and mesoporous biosilica shells (frustules) having a highly ordered hierarchical architecture. These unique, morphological, chemical and mechanical properties make diatoms’ biosilica a very attractive nanomaterial for a wide variety of applications. Methods of purification of frustules that preserve their nanostructured morphology have been set up as well as in vivo or in vitro chemical modification protocols of the biosilica with functional molecules to generate biohybrid active materials for photonics, sensing, drug delivery and electronics. Herein we describe, with some selected examples, the great variety of applications envisaged for native and modified frustules, highlighting the material scientists’ benefit to avail of nature in the construction of highly ordered biohybrid architectures for nanotechnology. New concepts for the biotechnological production of nanomaterials are opened by the use of diatoms as living factories.
I. INTRODUCTION
The development of efficient and scalable biotechnological methods of preparation of highly nanostructured materials represents a hot topic of current nanotechnology. In fact, many natural structures can be viewed as three dimensional (3-D) organic and inorganic nanoarchitectures having reproducible and complex hierarchical morphologies that are still difficult to achieve with human technologies. Actually, many living organisms have evolved their metabolism to optimize the structure of some components, from the nano- to the microscale, to confer upon them multifunctional properties that are fundamental for their growth and survival. Among these organisms, diatoms have attracted special attention. Diatoms are unicellular eukaryotic microalgae (Fig. 1) ubiquitously distributed in oceans, freshwater habitats, soils, and inhospitable surfaces, and thus have catched the attention of many classes of scientists thanks to the beautiful ornate nanoarchitecture of their silica shell walls. Since the end of 19th century, microscopy has disclosed the extraordinary features of such small organisms, and
Contributing Editor: Adrian B. Mann a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] This paper has been selected as an Invited Feature Paper. DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2016.459
nowadays materials scientists are exploiting their intriguing potentialities as nanomaterials.1,2 Diatoms are essential to all life on earth: their origin dates back to the Jurassic period and, for this reason, their microfossils (diatomaceous earth or diatomite) are useful i
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