Nature Communications (Dec 2019)
Hydroxyl-rich macromolecules enable the bio-inspired synthesis of single crystal nanocomposites
Abstract
Calcium carbonate biomineralisation has long been linked to acidic macromolecules. Here, the authors challenge this view and show that a huge number of gold nanoparticles coated with hydroxyl-rich proteins can be incorporated into a calcium carbonate crystal while maintaining single crystal character.