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Self-assembled gold nanochains hybrid based on insulin fibrils

Abstract

We reported a facile method for preparing self-assembly gold nanochains by using insulin fibrils as biotemplate in aqueous environment. The gold nanochains hybrid nanostructures, which are insulin fibrils coated by gold nanoparticles, can be fabricated by simply reducing the salt precursors using DMAB. By increasing the molar ratio between salt precursors and insulin, denser hybrid nanochains can be obtained, meanwhile the mean diameter of gold nanoparticles is changing from 8 to 10 nm and then to 12 nm. The fabricated gold nanochains hybrid had helix structure, which was confirmed by circular dichroism spectra. The hybrid nanostructures were also investigated by transmission electron microscope, atomic force microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectra, and UV–Visible spectroscopy. As the wire-like structure become denser, the suspensions show color-changing, corresponding to the surface plasmon resonance red shift, which is attributed to the increasing mean size of nanoparticles. Based on the characterizations, a hypothetic mechanism was suggested to describe the formation processing of hybrid gold nanochains.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21071122) and Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China(Grant No. 20091333110009) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei (Grant No. E2010001169, ZD2010112, 2011162, 201101A130).

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Correspondence to Faming Gao.

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11051_2012_855_MOESM1_ESM.doc

Figures of TEM images of bare insulin fibrils, a sample reduced by NaBH4, a sample prepared at molar ratio was 25 and a sample prepared without insulin fibrils. Supplementary material 1 (DOC 11,076 kb)

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Zhang, L., Gao, F. Self-assembled gold nanochains hybrid based on insulin fibrils. J Nanopart Res 14, 855 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-0855-z

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Keywords

  • Self assembly
  • Gold nanochains
  • Insulin fibrils
  • Helix