Protein
Biomineralized Nanoporous Inorganic Mesocrystals
with Tunable Hierarchical Nanostructures
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Abstract
Mesocrystals
with the symmetry defying morphologies and highly
ordered superstructures composed of primary units are of particular
interest, but the fabrication has proved extremely challenging. A
novel strategy based on biomineralization approach for the synthesis
of hematite mesocrystals is developed by using silk fibroin as a biotemplate.
The resultant hematite mesocrystals are uniform, highly crystalline,
and porous nanostructures with tunable size and morphologies by simply
varying the concentration of the silk fibroin and iron(III) chloride
in this biomineralization system. In particular, we demonstrate a
complex mesoscale biomineralization process induced by the silk fibroin
for the formation of hematite mesocrystals. This biomimetic strategy
features precisely tunable, high efficiency, and low-cost and opens
up an avenue to access new novel functional mesocrystals with hierarchical
structures in various practical applications