Biocatalytic Nanolithography: Nanofabrication of High Chemical Complexity Surfaces

生物体在不同的尺寸范围内构建了各种各样的结构，从大型骨骼到微观细胞成分，以执行其生命过程。尽管大小不同，但所有这些物体的组装最终都依赖于纳米级分子的产生（十亿分之一米，或人类头发厚度的十万分之一）。这些生物“积木”由糖和蛋白质等化合物组成，由酶（所有生物体的分子机制）产生。为了制造这些复杂的大结构，生物体已经开发出一系列的方法来将这些酶移动到需要形成结构的特定位置。在纳米尺度上操纵和研究物体的能力被称为纳米技术，特别有趣的是，在这个尺寸范围内，材料显示出与它们以大块形式存在时完全不同的新特性。通过找到利用这些不寻常的特性的方法，预计它们可以用于创建全新类型的技术和设备。因此，能够将酶移动到特定位置作为控制这种规模的物体构造的手段的基本思想将是非常有用的，如果它可以被我们用来组装高度集成的设备，如电子元件或电路。为此目的利用酶是特别有吸引力的，因为它们能够非常有效地进行广泛的化学反应，并且很少产生不需要的副产物。此外，它们在温和的条件下工作，不依赖稀有或有毒材料。相比之下，纳米技术中使用的许多当前技术来源于电子工业，不仅由于其操作条件的苛刻性而限制了它们可以实现的化学类型，而且还非常耗电。该研究项目的目的是使用能够促进材料形成和沉积的酶来产生纳米-各种表面上的鳞片图案。为了实现这一目标，酶将与一种称为“扫描探针显微镜”的仪器一起使用。这种仪器使用微型电动机来移动一个非常尖锐的尖端，即仪器的“探针”，它只有几纳米宽。该仪器还能够以纳米精度控制该探针的移动。这种以如此精细的控制移动和定位探针的能力使得可以使用它在表面上“写入”图案。通过将这些酶附着到这些探针的尖端，酶的化学反应性可以被引导以存款它们的材料作为纳米级图案。通过开发这些酶的修饰版本，这种写入纳米粒子的新方法将进一步促进它们在扫描探针上的有效表现。例如，它们可以被改性以存款更广泛的化合物，或更耐损坏，因此它们可以在需要更换之前使用更长的时间。然后，生产的材料将被测试以确定它们的电气特性，以便它们可以用于构建封装的电子设备。此外，将使用许多扫描探针同时写入图案进行实验，这将展示这种纳米纤维的新方法如何用于化学复杂的嵌入式设备的大规模生产。

Living organisms construct a tremendous variety of structures across a range of sizes, from large bones to microscopic cell components in order to carry out their life processes. Despite this variation in size, the assembly of all of these objects ultimately relies on the generation of molecules that are nanometres in scale (a billionth of a metre, or 1/100,000th of the thickness of a human hair). These biological "building blocks", composed of compounds such as sugars and proteins are produced by enzymes, the molecular machinery of all living organisms. In order to generate these complex larger structures, living organisms have developed a range of methods for moving these enzymes to specific locations where the structures need to be formed.The ability to manipulate and study objects on nanometre scales is called nanotechnology, and is particularly interesting since at this size range, materials display new properties that are radically different from when they exist in their bulk form. By finding ways of harnessing these unusual properties, it is expected that they can be used to create entirely new types of technologies and devices. The basic idea of being able to move enzymes to particular locations as a means of controlling the construction of objects on this scale would therefore be extremely useful if it could be applied by us to assemble highly miniaturised devices, such as electronic components or circuits. Harnessing enzymes for this purpose is particularly appealing since they are able to conduct a wide range of chemical reactions very efficiently and generate few unwanted by-products. Furthermore, they function under mild conditions and do not rely on rare or toxic materials. In contrast, many of the current techniques used in nanotechnology are derived from the electronics industry are not only limited in the types of chemistry they can achieve due to the harshness of the conditions under which they operate, but are also very power consuming.Accordingly, the aim of this research project is to use enzymes that are able to promote the formation and deposition of materials to generate nanometre-scale patterns on a variety of surfaces. To achieve this aim, enzymes will be used together with an instrument called a "scanning probe microscope". This instrument uses miniature electrical motors to move a very sharp tip, the "probe" of the instrument, which is only a few nanometres wide. The instrument is also able to control the movement of this probe with nanometre precision. This ability to move and position the probe with such fine control makes it possible to use it to "write" patterns on surfaces. By attaching these enzymes to the tips of these probes, the chemical reactivity of the enzymes can be directed to deposit their materials as nanoscopic patterns. This new method of writing nanopatterns will be further facilitated by developing modified versions of these enzymes so that they will perform efficiently on a scanning probe. For example, they may be modified to deposit a wider range of compounds, or to be more resistant to damage so they may be used for a longer period of time before needing to be replaced.The materials that are produced will then be tested to determine their electrical properties so that they can then be applied for the construction of miniaturised electronic devices. Furthermore, experiments will be carried out using many scanning probes writing patterns simultaneously, which will demonstrate how this new method of nanofabrication could be used for the mass production of chemically complex miniaturised devices.