You are here
Bioinspired Materials
This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering.
-
Researchers have developed a method to self-assemble close to perfect structures of gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticles were grafted with polymer chains into 2D supercrystals by controlling salt concentration. The materials were characterized using high-resolution synchrotron surface X-ray scattering methods, including grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering and X-ray reflectivity, at the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility.
-
Swapping out hard-shelled nanoparticle models for the soft-shelled variety has led to theoretical results in tune with experimental findings for building supercrystal nano materials. These are fundamental new type of material that are built from nanoparticles displaying long range order. In the process of building, the nanoparticles interact, jockeying for position in the lattice. Whereas models of hard-shelled nanoparticles only clink against each other, the flexible exterior of soft-shelled nanoparticles makes their interactions much more complex.
-
Researchers have developed the first theoretical model of the self-assembly of nanocubes that have been coated with polymers, including DNA and have shown exciting possibilities for experimentally programming self-assembled structures. While spherical nanoparticles can align in any direction, nanocubes will only align with their faces oriented in certain ways.
-
Using the surface sensitive synchrotron X-ray capabilities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photo Source, researchers were able to figure out that the structure of the vapor/liquid interface of an ionic liquid is actually made up of tiny crystals even 100 °F above the liquid’s melting point.Ionic liquids consist of positive and negative ions.
-
A new group of bacteria has been discovered in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin that makes nanoparticles of both magnetite (Fe3O4) and greigite (Fe3S4). Magnetotactic bacteria use these tiny magnets as part of their navigation system to align themselves along the Earth’s magnetic field. Typical magnetotactic bacteria do not make both magnetite and greigite and the discovery dispels the notion that greigite-producing bacteria live only in marine environments.
-
Using computer simulations, researchers are able to watch how a random mixture of gold nanoparticles with two different DNA strands as linkers assemble right on their computer screen. The magic starts with just a fraction of the nanoparticles forming a large cluster like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Within this random cluster, small ordered regions form and eventually lock together into a large uniform array of particles held together with DNA strands. Using computer simulations they also predict previously unseen structures.
-
Ions in water with the same charge, e.g. Fe3+ and La3+, behave dramatically differently at the air/water interface when interacting with a charged surface. This difference violates classic electrostatic theory. The distributions of specific ion types were determined with unprecedented precision using newly developed surface sensitive synchrotron x-ray scattering and spectroscopic techniques. The research team was able to use these results to verify their recently-developed theoretical model that takes into account both classical and effective quantum behavior.
-
Understanding the mechanism of action of mineralization proteins, such as Mms6 that promote the growth of uniform nanocrystals of magnetite as well as cobalt ferrite under room temperature conditions, enables us to design more stable synthetic analogs that can perform these functions in a much more robust manner. To elucidate the mechanism of Mms6, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy techniques were developed at the Ames Laboratory and showed that Mms6 binds selectively to Fe3+ and in large quantities, compared to other ions.
-
The ability to mimic the hierarchical order at multiple length scales in natural materials, such as bone, is crucial for a bottom-up approach to materials design. Being able to mimic the formation of self-assembled nanocomposites of calcium phosphate using block copolypeptides as templates has allowed us to grow hydroxyapatite nanocrystals in the organic matrix with sizes and morphologies similar to that seen in natural bone. The hydroxyapatite nanocrystal size in the synthetic nanocomposites was determined controlled through the use of citrate, similar to native bone.
Publications
2018
-
Rodriguez-Navarro A.B.; McCormack H.M.; Fleming R.H.; Alvarez-Lloret P.; Romero-Pastor J.; Dominguez-Gasca N.; Prozorov T.; Dunn I.C. Influence of physical activity on tibial bone material properties in laying hens. Journal of Structural Biology 2018 201, 36-45. Abstract
2017
-
Elshobaki M.; Gebhardt R.; Carr J.; Lindemann W.; Wang W.J.; Grieser E.; Venkatesan S.; Ngo E.; Bhattacharjee U.; Strzalla J.; Jiang Z.; Qiao Q.Q.; Petrich J.W.; Vaknin D.; Chaudhary S. Tailoring Nanoscale Morphology of Polymer:Fullerene Blends Using Electrostatic Field. Interfaces 2017 9, 2678-2685. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Wang W.J.; Mallapragada S.; Travesset A.; Vaknin D. Macroscopic and tunable nanoparticle superlattices. Nanoscale 2017 9, 164-171. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Malik V.; Mallapragada S.; Akinc M. Synthesis and characterization of Gd-doped magnetite nanoparticles. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 2017 423, 386-394. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Wang W.J.; Mallapragada S.; Travesset A.; Vaknin D. Ion-Specific Interfacial Crystallization of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2017 121, 15424-15429. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Wang W.J.; Akinc M.; Mallapragada S.; Travesset A.; Vaknin D. Assembling and ordering polymer-grafted nanoparticles in three dimensions. Nanoscale 2017 9, 8710-8715. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Nayak S.; Wang W.J.; Mallapragada S.; Vaknin D. Interfacial Self-Assembly of Polyelectrolyte-Capped Gold Nanoparticles. Langmuir 2017 33, 12227-12234. Abstract
-
Prozorov T.; Almeida T.P.; Kovacs A.; Dunin-Borkowski R.E. Off-axis electron holography of bacterial cells and magnetic nanoparticles in liquid. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 2017 14, 20170464. Abstract
-
Waltmann C.; Horst N.; Travesset A. in Nanocrystal Self-Assembly. Acs Nano 2017 11, 11273-11282. Abstract
-
Wang W.J.; Zhang H.H.; Mallapragada S.; Travesset A.; Vaknin D. Ionic depletion at the crystalline Gibbs layer of PEG-capped gold nanoparticle brushes at aqueous surfaces. Physical Review Materials 2017 1, 10. Abstract
2016
-
Horst N.; Travesset A. Prediction of binary nanoparticle superlattices from soft potentials. Journal of Chemical Physics 2016 144, 014502. Abstract
-
Vaknin D. Magnetic Nematicity: A debated origin. Nature Materials 2016 15, 131-132. Abstract
-
Tulli L.G.; Wang W.J.; Rullaud V.; Lindemann W.R.; Kuzmenko I.; Vaknin D.; Shahgaldian P. Binding of calixarene-based Langmuir monolayers to mercury chloride is dependent on the amphiphile structure. Rsc Advances 2016 6, 9278-9285. Abstract
-
Calero C.; Knorowski C.; Travesset A. Determination of anharmonic free energy contributions: Low temperature phases of the Lennard-Jones system. Journal of Chemical Physics 2016 144, 124102. Abstract
-
Wang W.J.; Zhang H.H.; Kuzmenko I.; Mallapragada S.; Vaknin D. Assembling Bare Au Nanoparticles at Positively Charged Templates. Scientific Reports 2016 6, 26462. Abstract
-
Nayak S.; Zhang H.H.; Liu X.P.; Feng S.R.; Palo P.; Nilsen-Hamilton M.; Akinc M.; Mallapragada S. Protein patterns template arrays of magnetic nanoparticles. RCS Advances 2016 6, S7048-S7056. Abstract
-
Wang W.J.; Zhang H.H.; Feng S.R.; San Emeterio J.; Mallapragada S.; Vaknin D. Iron Ion and Iron Hydroxide Adsorption to Charge-Neutral Phosphatidylcholine Templates. Langmuir 2016 32, 7664-7670. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Wang W.J.; Hagen N.; Kuzmenko I.; Akinc M.; Travesset A.; Mallapragada S.; Vaknin D. Self-Assembly of DNA Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles at the Liquid-Vapor Interface. Advanced Materials Interfaces 2016 3, 1600180. Abstract
2015
-
Tulli L.G.; Wang W.J.; Lindemann W.R.; Kuzmenko I.; Meier W.; Vaknin D.; Shahgaldian P. Interfacial Binding of Divalent Cations to Calixarene-Based Langmuir Monolayers. Langmuir 2015 31, 2351-2359. Abstract
-
Zhang H.H.; Liu X.P.; Feng S.R.; Wang W.J.; Schmidt-Rohr K.; Akinc M.; Nilsen-Hamilton M.; Vaknin D.; Mallapragada S. Morphological Transformations in the Magnetite Biomineralizing Protein Mms6 in Iron Solutions: A Small-Angle X-ray Scattering Study. Langmuir 2015 31, 2818-2825. Abstract
-
Sung W.; Wang W.; Lee J.; Vaknin D.; Kim D. Specificity and Variation of Length Scale over Which Monovalent Halide Ions Neutralize a Charged Interface. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2015 119, 7130-7137. Abstract
-
Travesset A. Binary nanoparticle superlattices of soft-particle systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2015 112, 9563-9567. Abstract
-
Liu X.P.; Zhang H.H.; Nayak S.; Parada G.; Anderegg J.; Feng S.R.; Nilsen-Hamilton M.; Akinc M.; Mallapragada S.K. Effect of Surface Hydrophobicity on the Function of the Immobilized Biomineralization Protein Mms6. Engineering Chemistry Research 2015 54, 10284-10292. Abstract
-
Lindemann W.R.; Philiph R.L.; Chan D.W.W.; Ayers C.T.; Perez E.M.; Beckman S.P.; Strzalka J.; Chaudhary S.; Vaknin D. Oriented polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) films by Langmuir-Blodgett deposition: a synchrotron X-ray diffraction study. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2015 17, 29335-29339. Abstract
2014
-
Knorowski C.; Travesset A. Self-Assembly and Crystallization of Hairy (f-Star) and DNA-Grafted Nanocubes. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014 136, 653-659. Abstract
-
Rathnayake S.S.; Mirheydari M.; Schulte A.; Gillahan J.E.; Gentit T.; Phillips A.N.; Okonkwo R.K.; Burger K.N.J.; Mann E.K.; Vaknin D.; Bu W.; Agra-Kooijman D.M.; Kooijman E.E. Insertion of apoLp-III into a lipid monolayer is more favorable for saturated, more ordered, acyl-chains. Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta-Biomembranes 2014 1838, 482-492. Abstract
-
Morillo V.; Abreu F.; Araujo A.C.; de Almeida L.G.P.; Enrich-Prast A.; Farina M.; de Vasconcelos A.T.R.; Bazylinski D.A.; Lins U. Isolation, cultivation and genornic analysis of magnetosome biomineralization genes of a new genus of South-seeking magnetotactic cocci within the Alphaproteobacteria. Frontiers in Microbiology 2014 5, 72. Abstract
-
Tulli L.G.; Moridi N.; Wang W.J.; Helttunen K.; Neuburger M.; Vaknin D.; Meier W.; Shahgaldian P. Polymorphism control of an active pharmaceutical ingredient beneath calixarene-based Langmuir monolayers. Chemical Communications 2014 50, 3938-3940. Abstract
-
Vaknin D.; Demmel F. Magnetic spectra in the tridiminished-icosahedron {Fe-9} nanocluster by inelastic neutron scattering. Physical Review B 2014 89, 180411. Abstract
-
Bu W.; Kim D.; Vaknin D. Density Profiles of Liquid/Vapor Interfaces Away from Their Critical Points. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2014 118, 12405-12409. Abstract
-
Valverde-Tercedor C.; Abadia-Molina F.; Martinez-Bueno M.; Pineda-Molina E.; Chen L.; Oestreicher Z.; Lower B.H.; Lower S.K.; Bazylinski D.A.; Jimenez-Lopez C. Subcellular localization of the magnetosome protein MamC in the marine magnetotactic bacterium Magnetococcus marinus strain MC-1 using immunoelectron microscopy. Archives of Microbiology 2014 196, 481-488. Abstract
-
Wang W.J.; Kuzmenko I.; Vaknin D. Iron near absorption edge X-ray spectroscopy at aqueous-membrane interfaces. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2014 16, 13517-13522. Abstract
-
Yao L.X.; Hammond E.G.; Wang T.; Bu W.; Vaknin D. Physical and monolayer film properties of potential fatty ester biolubricants. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology 2014 116, 910-917. Abstract
-
Prozorov T.; Perez-Gonzalez T.; Valverde-Tercedor C.; Jimenez-Lopez C.; Yebra-Rodriguez A.; Kornig A.; Faivre D.; Mallapragada S.K.; Howse P.A.; Bazylinski D.A.; Prozorov R. Manganese incorporation into the magnetosome magnetite: magnetic signature of doping. European Journal of Mineralogy 2014 26, 457-471. Abstract
-
Lin W.; Bazylinski D.A.; Xiao T.; Wu L.F.; Pan Y. Life with compass: diversity and biogeography of magnetotactic bacteria. Environmental microbiology 2014 16, 2646-58. Abstract
-
Kashyap S.; Woehl T.J.; Liu X.P.; Mallapragada S.K.; Prozorov T. Nucleation of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Mediated by Mms6 Protein in Situ. Acs Nano 2014 8, 9097-9106. Abstract
-
Ge Q.W.; Liu X.P.; Parada G.; Mallapragada S.K.; Akinc M. Synthesis of Mesoporous Zirconia Templated by Block Copolymer-Lysozyme Conjugate in Aqueous Media. Science of Advanced Materials 2014 6, 2106-2114. Abstract
-
Travesset A. Phase diagram of power law and Lennard-Jones systems: Crystal phases. Journal of Chemical Physics 2014 141, 164501. Abstract
-
Malik V.; Goodwill J.; Mallapragada S.; Prozorov T.; Prozorov R. Comparative Study of Magnetic Properties of Nanoparticles by High-Frequency Heat Dissipation and Conventional Magnetometry. IEEE Magnetics Letters 2014 5, 4000104. Abstract
2013
-
Sung W.; Vaknin D.; Kim D. Different Adsorption Behavior of Rare Earth and Metallic Ion Complexes on Langmuir Mono layers Probed by Sum-Frequency Generation Spectroscopy. Journal of the Optical Society of Korea 2013 17, 10-15. Abstract
-
Liu X.P.; Ge Q.W.; Rawal A.; Parada G.; Schmidt-Rohr K.; Akinc M.; Mallapragada S.K. Templated and Bioinspired Aqueous Phase Synthesis and Characterization of Mesoporous Zirconia. Science of Advanced Materials 2013 5, 354-365. Abstract
-
Prozorov T.; Bazylinski D.A.; Mallapragada S.K.; Prozorov R. Novel magnetic nanomaterials inspired by magnetotactic bacteria: Topical review. Engineering R-Reports 2013 74, 133-172. Abstract
-
Feng S.R.; Wang L.J.; Palo P.; Liu X.P.; Mallapragada S.K.; Nilsen-Hamilton M. Integrated Self-Assembly of the Mms6 Magnetosome Protein to Form an Iron-Responsive Structure. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2013 14, 14594-14606. Abstract
-
Wang W.J.; Murthy N.S.; Kuzmenko I.; Anderson N.A.; Vaknin D. Structure of Biodegradable Films at Aqueous Surfaces: X-ray Diffraction and Spectroscopy Studies of Polylactides and Tyrosine-Derived Polycarbonates. Langmuir 2013 29, 11420-11430. Abstract
-
Wang W.J.; Sung W.; Ao M.; Anderson N.A.; Vaknin D.; Kim D. Halide Ions Effects on Surface Excess of Long Chain Ionic Liquids Water Solutions. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2013 117, 13884-13892. Abstract
-
Posfai M.; Lefevre C.T.; Trubitsyn D.; Bazylinski D.A.; Frankel R.B. Phylogenetic significance of composition and crystal morphology of magnetosome minerals. Frontiers in Microbiology 2013 4, 344. Abstract
-
Lindemann W.R.; Xiao T.; Wang W.J.; Berry J.E.; Anderson N.A.; Houk R.S.; Shinar R.; Shinar J.; Vaknin D. An X-ray fluorescence study on the segregation of Cs and I in an inverted organic solar cell. Organic Electronics 2013 14, 3190-3194. Abstract
-
Oestreicher Z.; Lower S.K.; Rees E.; Bazylinski D.A.; Lower B.H. Magnetotactic bacteria from Pavilion Lake, British Columbia. Frontiers in Microbiology 2013 4, 406. Abstract