Nature Communications (Dec 2019)

Hydroxyl-rich macromolecules enable the bio-inspired synthesis of single crystal nanocomposites

  • Yi-Yeoun Kim,
  • Robert Darkins,
  • Alexander Broad,
  • Alexander N. Kulak,
  • Mark A. Holden,
  • Ouassef Nahi,
  • Steven P. Armes,
  • Chiu C. Tang,
  • Rebecca F. Thompson,
  • Frederic Marin,
  • Dorothy M. Duffy,
  • Fiona C. Meldrum

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13422-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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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.