Biological Assembly of Hybrid Inorganic Nanomaterials

The assembly of two or more inorganic nanoparticles results in hybrid materials with enhanced properties. These include improvements in catalytic activity, changes in optical behavior, and potential gains in electronic properties. However, these are only attained through precise synthetic control of the resulting material with respect to structure, organization, size, and composition. Fortunately, biological systems are exceptional at the synthesis and assembly of diverse inorganic materials at many different length scales; and as result, has inspired many different approaches towards the biomimetic synthesis of hybrid inorganic materials.