Controllable Biomimetic Synthesis Of Silver Nanoparticles With Silver-binding Peptides

Inorganic binding-peptides can selectively and specifically bind to inorganic materials. They can be used as templates to catalyze and control synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles, which can be accomplished under mild conditions rather than stringent conditions, such as high temperature, very high pressures and a toxic environment, usually occurring with the traditional methods for preparing metal nanoparticles.In this article, the function and application of peptides AG3 (AYSSGAPPMPPF) and AG4(NPSSLFRYLPSD) were studied and discussed. AG3 and AG4 were immobilized on the surface of protonated PET-N(CH₃)₂ film, which was prepared for biomimetic synthesis silver particles in vitro. The results of SEM, AFM and XPS indicated that silver crystallites formatted on the surface of AG3/PET-N⁺(CH₃)₂ film showed various shapes and was l-4um in size. In addition to hexagonal and triangular crystallite, a silver crystallite presented a cubical shape which had seldom been reported in literatures so far. Moreover, spherical silver nanoparticles appeared on AG4/PET-N⁺(CH₃)₂ film besides silver crystallites. Therefore, AG3 and AG4 can make silver ions reduce and biomineralize in vitro.