Synthesis of Uniform Silica Rods, Curved Silica Wires, and Silica Bundles Using Filamentous fd Virus as a Template

[**] The authors thank Jochen Friedrich for his assistance with the TEM imaging and EDAX experiments. Karin Sellinghoff is thanked for her assistance with the fd virus preparation and Pavlik Lettinga for his encouraging discussions. One dimensional anisotropic inorganic nanostructures such as tubes, rods, wires, fibers, etc. are in the focus of research interests due to their potential applications, for example in optical, electronic and mechanical devices, sensors and catalysis[1, 2]. The synthesis of these anisotropic nanostructures is a big challenge, because most inorganic materials do not form the desired structure by themselves. In contrast to inorganic systems, biological and organic materials, especially supramolecular systems, usually have a well defined structure down to the nano-scale. Using (bio)organic materials as a template to build up anisotropic inorganic nanostructures has therefore emerged as a highly attractive method in recent years[3]. The results described in the present paper may serve as a basis for the further development of the synthesis of inorganic materials using biopolymers as a template. Similar routes of synthesis occur spontaneously in nature, for instance, in the formation of the silica cell wall of the Diatom, which is formed with an amazingly perfec