Paper BI-ThP4
Synthesis of CdSe Nanoparticles by Nanocaged Protein sHSP 16.5

Thursday, October 18, 2007, 5:30 pm, Room 4C

Synthesis of semiconductor nanoparticles is one of the interesting research fields in nanotechnology. The semiconductor nanoparticles are applicable to various electronic device, optical devices and bio sensors. Since the energy levels of the semiconductor nanoparticles are quantized depending on their size and shape, therefore it is important to synthesize semiconductor nanoprticles with the same size and shape. Quantum-effect devices were actively investigated to solve these problems. In this study, we performed biomimetic approach to control these factors by using inorganic material (CdSe nanoparticle) and organic nanocaged proteins. Protein cage architectures can be utilized as size- and shape-constrained reaction environments for nanomaterial synthesis. Biomimetic fabrication could be performed in the optimized conditions using small heat shock protein 16.5 (sHSP16.5) mutant and ion complex of cadmium and selenium. A directed nucleation could be achieved through the specific residues on the negatively charged center domain of sHSP16.5. CdSe nanoprticles had the excellent size uniformity in the core of the mineralized sHSP16.5. For 2D array on the Si wafer, we treated chemical such as 3-aminopropyltrethoxysilane (APTES). The mineralized sHSP16.5 has highly binding affinity on the APTES treated Si wafer, which the reason is hydrogen interactions between amine group of the APTES and carboxyl group of sHSP16.5. These results give us to control arrangement of quantum dots on the Si wafer. This biomimetic approach will be possible to achieve advanced floating gate memory devices and single electron transistor in the near future.