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Published on: July 10, 2015
Metal-Assisted Assembly of Protein Containers Loaded with Inorganic Nanoparticles
Matthias Künzle1, Thomas Eckert2, Tobias Beck1,3,4
1Institute of Inorganic Chemistry , RWTH Aachen University , 52074 Aachen , Germany.
Abstract:
Protein containers are suitable building blocks for bioinorganic materials. Here, we show that high concentrations of magnesium ions induce the formation of a unitary protein scaffold, whereas low magnesium concentration leads to a binary protein scaffold. The molecular interactions in the protein scaffold were characterized with X-ray crystallography to high resolution. We show that the unitary framework can be applied for the assembly of inorganic nanoparticles such as metal oxides into highly ordered bioinorganic structures. Our work emphasizes the structural tunability of protein-container-based materials, important for adjusting emerging properties of such materials.
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