Amino-acids-functionalized M13-assisted synthesis of silver and silver sulfide nanoparticles

Bio-mineralization has been explored to synthesize nanomaterials with exquisite structures and amazing properties. Amino-acids-functionalized filamentous M13 virus was applied as a scaffold for the synthesis of silver and silver sulfide nanoparticles. It is interesting to find that the binding affinity between filamentous M13 virus and silver ions can be effectively improved after a friendly modification by amino acids. At the same time, amino-acids-modified filamentous M13 virus also serves as a dispersant to decrease the size and increase the stability of silver nanoparticles. Both silver and silver sulfide nanoparticles with monodispersed size and uniform morphology can be fabricated by the direction of amino-acid-modified filamentous M13 virus. The successful synthesis of silver sulfide nanoparticles on amino-acids-modified filamentous M13 virus suggests that this approach is highly efficient to fabricate not only metal nanoparticles, but also binary or multinary compounds.