Controlled Self-Assembly of Rodlike Bacterial Pili Particles into Ordered Lattices

Shape matters when engineering mesoporous silica-based nanomedicines

This review introduces various fabrication methods for non-spherical mesoporous silica nanomaterials and the roles of particle shape in nanomedicine applications.

Recent advances in the synthesis of inorganic nano/microstructures using microbial biotemplates and their applications

Microbial biotemplates for synthesizing inorganic nanostructures of defined morphology and size.

Controlled alignment of filamentous supramolecular assemblies of biomolecules into centimeter-scale highly ordered patterns by using nature-inspired magnetic guidance

We took the advantage of the capability of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) being aligned along a magnetic field and reproducibly generated large scale bio-nanofiber assemblies with the orientation of the constituent bio-nanofibers defined by the applied magnetic field. When decorated by MNPs, bio-nanofibers could be guided by the external magnetic field to become oriented either horizontally or vertically, forming single- and multi-orientation layered assemblies.

Biotemplated hierarchical porous material: the positively charged leaf

Addressing the problem of pathogenic bacteria in human health remains a great challenge. We have prepared MgO, replicated from the leaf template, for efficient bacterial removal. The synthesis method perfectly inherits the advantage of the hierarchical three-level micro-meso-macroporous structure from the leaf template. The final product has the integrated advantages of a positively charged property, hierarchical three-level micro-meso-macroporous microstructure and sterilization property so that it could be named "the positively charged leaf". The positively charged leaf with the microstructure, which is bestowed by Nature, could be utilized in water purification for dye removal and could be extended to pollutant removal, especially of harmful bacteria. The positively charged leaf, as the leaf shield, could be useful in protecting human health. The concept of this work could be applied to the synthesis of different functional metal oxides with hierarchical porous structures, and the products could be utilized in efficient bacterial removal.