Protein-assisted nanoparticle synthesis

One of the important issues in the synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) is knowing how to regulate the particle size. The use of a protein cavity (cage) as the growth field of NPs provides one candidate method for obtaining uniform particle size. The present paper reviews several examples of fabricating inorganic NPs using proteins, in particular ferritin and Dps. An additional advantage of using a protein cavity has to do with the specific interactions between proteins. Proteins will crystallize under certain special conditions, yielding regularly arranged sites for NPs. Thus, protein crystallization enables the formation of a regular array of NPs. This paper also reviews the fabrication of two-dimensional NP arrays on a solid surface using ferritin.