Characterization of metal decorated protein templates by scanning electron/scanning force microscopy and microanalysis

Abstract

Highly ordered protein assemblies have been used as bio-organic templates either for the alignment of metallic nanoparticles or for the generation of continuous nanowires. A defined metallization of microtubules (MTs) is potentially interesting for the fabrication of conductive nanowires. Characterization of the in vitro assembled biomolecular templates and the subsequent metal deposition was performed by electron microscopic methods (SEM, TEM) and by scanning force microscopy (SFM). The SEM was equipped additionally with a special device to obtain transmission-type images (STEM-in-SEM operation). Palladium particle deposition and also a continuous silver coverage of the protein templates was demonstrated. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.