Silica nanostructures, metalized

Potential applications of peptide-polymer conjugates include drug delivery materials, optoelectronics, biosensors, tissue scaffolds, tissue replacement materials, hydrogels, adhesives, biomimetic polymers, lithographic masks, and templates for metallic or silica nanostructures. 

Soler-Illia, G.J.A.A. Sanchez, C. Lebeau, B. Patarin, J. Chemical strategies to design textured silica and metal oxide-based organised networks from nanostructured networks to hierarchical structures. Chem. Rev. 2002, 102, 4093. 

Chapter 51 Nanostructuring Metals and Semiconductors with Silica from... 

The metallization of 1-D silica nanostructures with noble metals provides an alternative method for the attachment of biomolecules. The robust interaction... 

P. Mazzoldi, G. Mattel, C. Maurizio, E. Cattaruzza, F. Gonella, in E. Knystautas (ed.) Metal Alloy Nanoclusters by Ion Implantation in Silica, in Engineering Thin Films and Nanostructures with Ion Beams, Chapter 7, CRC Press, New York, 2005, 82. 

Epoxy-silica hybrids are well known for their abrasion resistance and low thermal expansion due to the presence of nanostructured bi-continuous domains. Most recently they have entered the market as anticorrosion coatings in the marine held, for yachts and for large metal vessels, such as oil tankers, and in particular for cargo or ballast tanks and on hulls (Figure 4.9). 

Figure 5 shows two typical core-shell structures (a) contains a metal core and a dye doped silica shell [30, 32, 33, 78-85] and (b) has a dye doped silica core and a metal shell [31, 34]. There is a spacer between the core and the shell to maintain the distance between the fluorophores and the metal to avoid fluorescence quenching [30, 32, 33, 78-80, 83]. Usually, the spacer is a silica layer in this type of nanostructures. Various Ag and Au nanomaterials in different shapes have been used for fluorescence enhancement. Occasionally, Pt and Au-Ag alloys are selected as the metal. A few fluorophores have been studied in these two core-shell structures including Cy3 [30], cascade yellow [78], carboxyfluorescein [78], Ru(bpy)32+ [31, 34], R6G [34], fluorescein isothiocyanate [79], Rhodamine 800 [32, 33], Alexa Fluor 647 [32], NIR 797 [82], dansylamide [84], oxazin 725 [85], and Eu3+ complexes [33, 83]. 

More pragmatically, one can attempt to address the question of the benefits of nanostructured catalysts by comparison against the properties of similar catalysts prepared by traditional methods. There are a couple of well-known reactions that are thought to be catalyzed by atomically dispersed metals on supports [95]. Epoxi-dation of olefins by titanium on silica is one [96, 97]. 

A size-selective synthesis of nanostructured transition metal clusters (Pd, Ni) has been reported166, as has the preparation of colloidal palladium in organic solvents167, the latter of which is an active and stable catalyst for selective hydrogenation. The use of microwaves in the preparation of palladium catalysts on alumina and silica resulted in hydrogenation catalysts with improved crystallite size and activity168. 

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