Silica-Polypeptide Composite Particles

技术综述：将合成具有不同核尺寸、壳厚度和表面密度的二氧化硅核-多肽壳复合粒子。这将允许受控地研究在单一有机溶剂中的热螺旋到螺旋的转变。已知当流感病毒颗粒攻击时，相关的转变会破坏细胞膜的稳定。假设当合成粒子与其他聚合物混合时，构象转变可能能够作为相稳定开关来产生响应材料。这种相的性质将通过将棒状多肽与核壳颗粒混合来探索。关于天然棒状物和球形乳胶粒混合物的文献表明，可能会产生新的、熵驱动的相；然而，组成棒状物和球状物的尺寸和功能并不像拟议的工作那样连续变化。核壳颗粒可以用磁性成分制备，提供了另一种引发或破坏新相稳定的方法。非技术概述：具有玻璃样核心和蛋白质样表面的颗粒可以被配置为捕获、提纯或输送药物。磁性包裹体允许对颗粒进行简单的操作，从而增强了这些功能。这些粒子形成具有光衍射特性的液晶，这些特性在生产廉价的蓝色激光方面很有兴趣，而蓝色激光是高密度数据存储的关键。这里的一个关键因素是增加晶体结构的一致性，这可以通过磁性和结构转变的组合来实现。这些颗粒可以用来模拟生物矿化，一些海洋动物通过这个过程制造出优雅的纳米结构。这个受生物启发的项目位于基础科学和应用科学的交汇点附近，这是培养年轻研究人员的肥沃土壤。它在合成、表征和结构测定方面提出了具有挑战性的问题。该计划将尽可能地帮助目标学院和大学的教职员工和学生进行研究；因此，学生实习生将回到当地感兴趣的科学教练那里，后者将能够在至少一学年的进一步研究和课程学习中整合紧张的暑期体验所获得的成果。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Silica core-polypeptide shell composite particles will be synthesized with various core sizes, shell thicknesses and surface densities. This will permit the controlled investigation of thermal coil-to-helix transitions in a single organic solvent. Related transitions are known to destabilize cell membranes when influenza virus particles attack. It is hypothesized that when synthetic particles are mixed with other polymers, a conformational transition may be able to act as a phase stability switch to produce responsive materials. The nature of such phases will be explored by mixing rodlike polypeptides with the core-shell particles. The literature on mixtures of naturally occurring rods and spherical latex particles suggests that new, entropically driven phases may result; however, the size and functionality of the constituent rods and spheres has not been continuously variable as it will be in the proposed work. The core-shell particles can be prepared with a magnetic component, providing another means to initiate or destabilize new phases. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Particles having a glass-like core and a protein-like surface can be configured to capture, purify or deliver pharmaceuticals. Magnetic inclusions permit the particles to be manipulated simply, enhancing these functions. The particles form liquid crystals with light-diffracting properties that are of interest in the production of inexpensive blue lasers, which are essential for high-density data storage. A key factor here is increasing the uniformity of the crystal structure, which may be accomplished by a combination of magnetic and structural transitions. The particles can be used to emulate bio-mineralization, the process by which some sea animals make elegant nanostructures. This bio-inspired project stands near the confluence of fundamental and applied science, which is fertile ground for training young researchers. It poses challenging problems in synthesis, characterization and structure determination. The program will assist faculty and students at target colleges and universities with their research whenever possible; as a result, student interns will return to an interested local science coach who will be able to integrate the gains of an intense summer experience over at least one academic year of further research and coursework.