title: Fabrication of platinum nanopillars on peptide-based soft structures using a focused ion beam.
abstract: An expedient entry into the construction of bionanocomposites by merging peptide self-assembly, focused ion beam milling, and electron beam-induced deposition is described. Hexapeptides 1 and 2 revealed spherical self-assembled structures which are confirmed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), focused ion beam/high-resolution scanning electron microscope (FIB-HRSEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The microspheres from 1 and 2 are milled with the help of an ion beam to create different shapes. Soft spherical peptide-based structures were also subjected to fabrication under a gallium ion beam, followed by deposition of platinum pillars through a direct write process. It is envisaged that such hybrid bionanocomposites could have applications ranging from Pt-based hydrogenation catalysts to bioelectronics. In addition, such a fabrication process might also be useful to electrically connect two biological systems in order to study an electrical signal or electron transport phenomenon and structural transformations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Prabhpreet
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Sandeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
mesh_terms: D005708:Gallium / Q000737:chemistry; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D010984:Platinum; D005708:Gallium