Bio-Templating: An Emerging Synthetic Technique for Catalysts. A Review

In the last few years, researchers have focused their attention on the synthesis of new catalyst structures based on or inspired by nature. Biotemplating involves the transfer of biological structures to inorganic materials through artificial mineralization processes. This approach offers the main advantage of allowing morphological control of the product, as a template with the desired morphology can be pre-determined, as long as it is found in nature. This way, natural evolution through millions of years can provide us with new synthetic pathways to develop some novel functional materials with advantageous properties, such as sophistication, miniaturization, hybridization, hierarchical organization, resistance, and adaptability to the required need. The field of application of these materials is very wide, covering nanomedicine, energy capture and storage, sensors, biocompatible materials, adsorbents, and catalysis. In the latter case, bio-inspired materials can be applied as catalysts requiring different types of active sites (i.e., redox, acidic, basic sites, or a combination of them) to a wide range of processes, including conventional thermal catalysis, photocatalysis, or electrocatalysis, among others. This review aims to cover current experimental studies in the field of biotemplating materials synthesis and their characterization, focusing on their application in heterogeneous catalysis.

Magnetic and light-responsive nanogels based on chitosan functionalized with Au nanoparticles and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) as a remotely triggered drug carrier

Synthesis of thermosensitive nanogels based on functionalized chitosan with Au nanoparticles (NPs) and poly(NIPAM) to release of drug molecules under light exposure.

Metallic Ti3O5 hierarchical porous microspheres with an enhanced photothermal property

γ-Ti₃O₅ is one kind of prominent non-stoichiometric metal oxide due to its intriguing ability in electric and electrochemical behaviors. This work reports another attractive property of γ-Ti₃O₅ hierarchical porous microspheres, the extremely effective photothermal property with a high photothermal conversion efficiency. Theory and experimental results indicate that γ-Ti₃O₅ hierarchical porous microspheres possess metallic features and display very strong localized surface plasma resonance effects over the visible and near-infrared region. Under simulated sunlight or near infrared light, the metallic γ-Ti₃O₅ exhibits a photothermal conversion efficiency of up to 65.29%. Under irradiation by a near-infrared laser with a wavelength of 808 nm, the γ-Ti₃O₅ hierarchical porous microspheres can significantly inhibit cancer cell viability in vitro and disrupt tumor tissue growth in vivo in a short period. In vitro and in vivo toxicity experiments demonstrate that it has good biocompatibility. The ultrahigh photothermal conversion efficiency and biocompatibility make the γ-Ti₃O₅ very attractive for technological uses in photothermal therapy, solar energy utilization, and infrared light detection and so on.

Metallic γ-Ti₃O₅ hierarchical porous microspheres with strong localized surface plasmon resonance are reported, which can inhibit cancer cell viability in vitro and disrupt tumor tissue growth in vivo under the irradiation of near infrared light.

Synthesis of Gd-functionalized Fe3O4@polydopamine nanocomposites for T1/T2 dual-modal magnetic resonance imaging-guided photothermal therapy

A safe, efficient and inexpensive nanoplatform based on gadolinium-functionalized Fe₃O₄@polydopamine nanocomposites was fabricated for T₁/T₂ dual-modal magnetic resonance imaging-guided photothermal therapy.

Chemo-photothermal therapy of cancer cells using gold nanorod-cored stimuli-responsive triblock copolymer

The combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy, when carefully planned, has been shown to be an effective cancer treatment option clinically and preclinically.

Fabrication of gold nanocages and nanoshells using lanreotide acetate and a comparison study of their photothermal antitumor therapy

Functional gold nanoshells and nanocages were synthesized via self-assembly of lanreotide acetate.

Self-assembly of adenovirus-templated platinum nanoshells and evaluation of their biocompatibilities

Highly biocompatible and monodisperse platinum nanoshells with diameters of ∼100 nm were fabricated using adenovirus as sacrificial template.