Photonics and plasmonics go viral: self-assembly of hierarchical metamaterials

Abstract

Sizing and shaping of mesoscale architectures with nanoscale features is a key opportunity to produce the next generation of higher-performing products and at the same time unveil completely new phenomena. This review article discusses recent advances in the design of novel photonic and plasmonic structures using a biology-inspired design. The proteinaceous capsids from viruses have long been discovered as platform technologies enabling unique applications in nanotechnology, materials, bioengineering, and medicine. In the context of materials applications, the highly organized structures formed by viral capsid proteins provide a 3D scaffold for the precise placement of plasmon and gain materials. Based on their highly symmetrical structures, virus-based nanoparticles have a high propensity to self-assemble into higher-order crystalline structures, yielding hierarchical hybrid materials. Recent advances in the field have led to the development of virus-based light harvesting systems, plasmonic structures for application in high-performance metamaterials, binary nanoparticle lattices, and liquid crystalline arrays for sensing or display technologies. There is still much that could be explored in this area, and we foresee that this is only the beginning of great technological advances in virus-based materials for plasmonics and photonics applications.

Toward Virus-Like Surface Plasmon Strain Sensors

“…While the significant potential for virus-assisted plasmonic and photonic materials bottom-up assembly has been noted, 7,8 to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the possibility of an optical strain sensor based on a virus-like particle is discussed. Previous work aimed at expanding optical metamaterials research from structures fabricated in 2D planar geometries to bottom-up assembled 3D structures has shown that clusters of gold NPs can be encapsulated in an amphiphilic block copolymer shell.…”

Assembly and Stability of Simian Virus 40 Polymorphs

“…Understanding viral assembly pathways is critical to biology and biotechnology. − In particular, virus-like particles (VLPs) have become attractive candidates for many applications in nano- and biotechnology, such as catalysis, gene therapy, and vaccination . One extensively studied virus for biological applications is the simian vacuolating virus 40 (SV40), a member of the polyomavirus family.…”

Engineering Virus-like Particles for Antigen and Drug Delivery

“…Bacteriophage Qβ [190] and MS2 VLPs [164] have been reported as vehicles for the targeted delivery of light activated porphyrins, which upon photo-induction release singlet oxygen radicals into the cells for photodynamic therapy. Various other photochemical mechanisms have demonstrated controlled drug release from nanoparticles [184,192,193], and therefore represent valuable approaches to design VLPs for improved spatio-temporal control of drug release.…”