Controlled synthesis of highly-branched plasmonic gold nanoparticles through peptoid engineering

Feng Yan, Lili Liu, Tiffany R. Walsh, Yu Gong, Patrick Z. El-Khoury, Yanyan Zhang, Zihua Zhu, James J. De Yoreo, Mark H. Engelhard, Xin Zhang and Chun-Long Chen ()
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Feng Yan: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lili Liu: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Tiffany R. Walsh: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University
Yu Gong: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Patrick Z. El-Khoury: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Yanyan Zhang: Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Zihua Zhu: Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
James J. De Yoreo: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Mark H. Engelhard: Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Xin Zhang: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Chun-Long Chen: Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract In nature, specific biomolecules interacting with mineral precursors are responsible for the precise production of nanostructured inorganic materials that exhibit complex morphologies and superior performance. Despite advances in developing biomimetic approaches, the design rules for creating sequence-defined molecules that lead to the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials with predictable complex morphologies are unknown. Herein we report the design of sequence-defined peptoids for controlled synthesis of highly branched plasmonic gold particles. By engineering peptoid sequences and investigating the resulting particle formation mechanisms, we develop a rule of thumb for designing peptoids that predictively enabled the morphological evolution from spherical to coral-shaped nanoparticles. Through a combination of hyperspectral UV-Vis extinction microscopy and three-photon photoemission electron microscopy, we demonstrate that the individual coral-shaped gold nanoparticles exhibit a plasmonic enhancement as high as 105-fold. This research significantly advances our ultimate vision of predictive bio-inspired materials synthesis using sequence-defined synthetic molecules that mimic proteins and peptides.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04789-2

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