Synthetic fossilization of soft biological tissues and their shape-preserving transformation into silica or electron-conductive replicas

Jason L. Townson, Yu-Shen Lin, Stanley S. Chou, Yasmine H. Awad, Eric N. Coker, C. Jeffrey Brinker and Bryan Kaehr ()
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Jason L. Townson: The University of New Mexico
Yu-Shen Lin: The University of New Mexico
Stanley S. Chou: Advanced Materials Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
Yasmine H. Awad: Center for Micro-Engineered Materials, The University of New Mexico
Eric N. Coker: Advanced Materials Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
C. Jeffrey Brinker: Advanced Materials Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
Bryan Kaehr: Advanced Materials Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Structural preservation of complex biological systems from the subcellular to whole organism level in robust forms, enabling dissection and imaging while preserving 3D context, represents an enduring grand challenge in biology. Here we report a simple immersion method for structurally preserving intact organisms via conformal stabilization within silica. This self-limiting process, which we refer to as silica bioreplication, occurs by condensation of water-soluble silicic acid proximally to biomolecular interfaces throughout the organism. Conformal nanoscopic silicification of all biomolecular features imparts structural rigidity enabling the preservation of shape and nano-to-macroscale dimensional features upon drying to form a biocomposite and further high temperature oxidative calcination to form silica replicas or reductive pyrolysis to form electrically conductive carbon replicas of complete organisms. The simplicity and generalizability of this approach should facilitate efforts in biological preservation and analysis and could enable the development of new classes of biomimetic composite materials.

Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6665

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6665

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