Synthesis of metal–organic frameworks on tobacco mosaic virus templates

Abstract

Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has long been exploited as a robust biological scaffold for organic/inorganic modification owing to its anisotropic structure and chemically addressable amino acid residues on both the exterior and interior. We present the fabrication of a crystalline microporous metal–organic framework (MOF) shell on the exterior of TMV, which retains its rod-like morphology, and produces uniformly formed core–shell structures with high accessible surface area and pore volume. We also describe an exfoliation method that can recover the intact viral particle from the core–shell composite.