Biologially Inspired Flagella-Templated Silica Nanotubes

The desire and need for various types of nanostructures have been met with challenges of feasibility, reproducibility, and long fabrication time. To work towards improved bottom-up methods of nanofabrication, bacterial flagella are particularly attractive bio-templates for nanotubes due to their tubular structures and small inner and outer diameters. In this work, flagella isolated from Salmonella typhimurium are used as bio-templates to fabricate silica mineralized nanotubes. The process involves as well-controlled hydrolysis and condensation reaction with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), followed by the addition of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). By controlling the concentration of TEOS and the reaction time, a simple and precise method is developed for creating silica-mineralized flagella nanotubes (SMFNs) with various thicknesses of the silica layer. In addition, the SMFNs are further modified to multifunctional nanotubes by coating metal nanoparticles (NPs) or metal oxide NPs such as gold, palladium, and iron oxide. The metallized SMFNs are achieved through reactions including reductive metallization or oxidative hydrolysis. The results from these studies provide evidence for the complete coating of SMFNs with uniform metal NP sizes and high surface area coverage. The metallized SMFNs are found to be electrically conductive along their network structures. The current-voltage characteristics show remarkably improved electrical conductivities depending on the types of metal NPs loading and SMFN networks concentration. The biologically inspired SMFNs with metal loading will allow have controlled electrical properties that can lead to the potential of creating unique and precise nanoelectronic materials. Lastly, the randomly entangled SMFNs are characterized to demonstrate their capabilities for hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface applications.Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering -- Drexel University, 201