M13 Bacteriophage as a biological scaffold for magnetically-recoverable metal nanowire catalysts: Combining specific and nonspecific interactions to design multifunctional nanocomposites

A study was conducted to demonstrate nonspecific electrostatic interactions between cationic aqueous metal complexes and the anionic carboxylic groups of the solvent of the self-exposed pVIII region of the wild-type M13 bacterophage. It was demonstrated that the bacteriophage generated similar nanostructures without the need for genetic modification. These nonspecific electrostatic interactions was used to template metal particles lengthwise along the pVIII region of the bacteriophage. The approach to site-directed templating through a combination of specific and nonspecific interactions was used to create bifunctional nanocomposite materials. Bacteriophage decorated with Rh, Pd, and Ru nanoparticles were synthesized by incubating 100-200 μL of WT M13 bacteriophage with 50 μL of 50 metal salt solutions.