Semiconducting hybrid layer fabrication scaffolded by virus shells

Abstract

The formation of virus-based semiconducting hybrid thin films is a two-step process, which involves assembly of virus particles as a template layer and subsequent selective mineralization of the virus surface with inorganic nanoparticles to build a semiconducting organic–inorganic hybrid film. Here, we present the use of the convective assembly technique to obtain homogeneous and dense template monolayers of wild-type tobacco mosaic virus (wt-TMV) and the TMV mutant E50Q, of which most particles do not have detectable amounts of RNA in the protein tube. On the top of the aligned virus layer, zinc oxide (ZnO) is deposited to prepare virus–ZnO semiconducting hybrid films with controllable thickness under mild conditions of the chemical bath deposition (CBD).