Bioinspired Silica Synthesis

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 

BIOINSPIRED AND BIOMIMETIC SYNTHESIS THE USE OF POLY(ALLYLAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE) 

Macromolecules Containing Metal and Metal-Like Elements, 

Volume 4 Group IVA Polymers, edited by Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz, 

Charles E. Carraher Jr., Charles U. Pittman Jr., and Martel Zeldin ISBN 0-471-68238-1 Copyright 2005 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

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Patwardhan, S. V., Silicification and Biosilicification Role of Macromolecules in Bioinspired Silica Synthesis. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati 2003. 

Similarly, sponges and grasses form sUicified structures. Sihcification in vivo (also called biomineraUzation and biosUicification, in particular) may also take place at (or very close to) neutral pH and in an aqueous phase and is predicted to be catalyzed by specific proteins. Thus biosUicification is inspirational source for in vitro studies. It is clearly important to study and understand the role and specificity of proteins involved in biosUicification. Such investigations have led to bioinspired silica synthesis. In addition, such bioinspired methodologies may help in cost reduction for industrial silica production. 

Bioinspired silica formation assay was performed in the presence of the YT320 protein, starting with several silica precursors as listed in Table 1. Upon mixing a precursor solution with a protein solution of the desired concentration and buffering the reaction content to pH 7, silica precipitation was observed. The synthetic procedures were similar to those we have previously described [13,19,20]. Briefly, in potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7), 5 mg/ml of the YT320 protein solution (in the same buffer) was added and then 1 M pre-hydrolysed TMOS solution was added. The volume ratios of buffer protein solution silica precursor solution was 8 2 1 in the case of TMOS based synthesis. For the experiments under externally applied shear, the TMOS based reaction mixture was stirred for 5 minutes. The product was then centrifuged, washed and dried. 

Patwardhan, S. V. Mukheijee, N. Steinitz-Kannan, M. Clarson, S. J., Bioinspired Synthesis of New Silica Structures. Chem. Commun. 2003, 10, 1122-1123. 

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