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Nanoscale Assembly of Nanowires Templated by Microtubules

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Jing Zhou
Affiliation:
jingczhou@yahoo.com, UCLA, Materials Science and Engineering, 420 Westwood Pl, 1763 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Tzy-Jiun Mark Luo
Affiliation:
mark_luo@ncsu.edu, UCLA, Materials Science and Engineering, United States
Yan Gao
Affiliation:
yangao@engineering.ucsb.edu, UCSB, Materials Dept, United States
Mei Xue
Affiliation:
mxue@ee.ucla.edu, UCLA, Electrical Engineering, United States
Joseph Lau
Affiliation:
josef@ucla.edu, UCLA, Materials Science and Engineering, United States
Toshikazu Hamasaki
Affiliation:
dynein@seas.ucla.edu, UCLA, Bioengineering, United States
Evelyn Hu
Affiliation:
hu@ece.ucsb.edu, UCSB, Materials Dept, United States
Kang Wang
Affiliation:
wang@ee.ucla.edu, UCLA, Electrical Engineering, United States
Bruce Dunn
Affiliation:
bdunn@ucla.edu, UCLA, Materials Science and Engineering, United States
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Abstract

Conventional top-down lithographic processes approach their practical and theoretical limits at dimensional scales less than 100 nm. Alternative bottom-up methods are being investigated to build nanoscale architectures, including the use of biomolecules whose functional groups bind inorganic particles. In this study, the fabrication and alignment of microtubule-based nanowires are investigated. Microtubules (MT) are fibrous proteins found in nearly all eukaryotes. Our work was carried out using polymerized alpha- and beta-tubulins, which were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde to stabilize the protein structure. Ni coated microtubules were fabricated by reducing Ni2+ to Ni0 on Pd activated microtubule surface. Focus Ion Beam was used to write metal contacts on these Ni microtubule nanowires and DC conductivity values were measured. Au deposition on MT was performed by both electroless deposition and electrodeposition, by reducing HAuCl4 onto MT prebound with 2 nm Au colloids. Although most MTs exhibited discontinuous Au binding, a fraction of MTs were covered completely by Au. Preliminary electrical measurements for these materials are reported. Alignment of microtubules was also achieved by injecting MTs into microfluidic devices over amine-coated substrate surfaces. These biotemplating approaches are the first steps towards constructing more complicated 2D and 3D architectures.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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