The Glass Menagerie: diatoms for novel applications in nanotechnology

Gordon, Richard; Lošić, Dušan; Tiffany, Mary Ann; Nagy, Stephen; Sterrenburg, F. A. S.

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2008.11.003

Cited by 378 publications

(277 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…Diatoms, for example, have a glassy cell wall ("frustule") made of amorphous silica associated with a matrix of proteins (Gordon et al 2009); fusing enzymes to these proteins immobilizes them on the diatom's cell wall, functionalizing this promising biomaterial (Sheppard et al 2012). Bacterial biofilms have also been functionalized in this way.…”

Section: Frontier Two: Synthetic Biomaterials and Programmable Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic Morphogenesis

Teague¹,

Guye

Weiss

2016

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

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Throughout biology, function is intimately linked with form. Across scales ranging from subcellular to multiorganismal, the identity and organization of a biological structure's subunits dictate its properties. The field of molecular morphogenesis has traditionally been concerned with describing these links, decoding the molecular mechanisms that give rise to the shape and structure of cells, tissues, organs, and organisms. Recent advances in synthetic biology promise unprecedented control over these molecular mechanisms; this opens the path to not just probing morphogenesis but directing it. This review explores several frontiers in the nascent field of synthetic morphogenesis, including programmable tissues and organs, synthetic biomaterials and programmable matter, and engineering complex morphogenic systems de novo. We will discuss each frontier's objectives, current approaches, constraints and challenges, and future potential.

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Section: Frontier Two: Synthetic Biomaterials and Programmable Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic Morphogenesis

Teague¹,

Guye

Weiss

2016

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

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“…(ii) Structural modification based on the natural methods of frustule formation: the formation of frustules in diatom cells is a bottom-up process. The formation process of the frustule structure is briefly discussed here; for full details see [6,17,30]. As shown in Figure 7(a), water-soluble silicic acid (Si(OH) 4 ) in the environment passes through the sieve pores and cytomembrane (composed of a pectic substance) and enters into the diatom cell.…”

Section: Structural Modification Of Diatom Frustulementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The potential of frustules has been extensively explored by academics and for commercial application. The resulting new theories and techniques have found wide application, leading to the formation of a new interdisciplinary area of research called diatom-based bio-nanotechnology (or diatom nanotechnology) [16][17][18][19][20][21]. The potential for diatoms in device applications, such as high-sensitivity gas sensors [22], drug delivery devices [23], biocarriers for biosensors [24][25][26][27], micro-filters [12,28], solar cells, battery electrodes and electroluminescent display devices [19] has been examined.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The development of diatom-based biomanufacturing technology will lead to improvement in the efficiency of use of biological resources. The following topics will not be discussed as key points, including molecular biology [28,29], frustule formation [6,30], micromachining [16], diatom nanotechnology (microfluidic/optical application and functional materials [17,21,31]), biosensing and biomimetic membranes [18], solar cells, battery, electroluminescent devices [19], gasoline extraction [32], environmental monitoring [33] and phytolith nanotechnology [34]; excellent reviews on these topics are available.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Bio-manufacturing technology based on diatom micro- and nanostructure

et al. 2012

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Diatom frustules, considered as novel bio-functional materials, display a diversity of patterns and unique micro-and nanostructures which may be useful in many areas of application. Existing devices directly use the original structure of the biosilica frustules, limiting their function and structural scale. Current research into the shapes, materials and structural properties of frustules are considered; a series of frustule processing methods including structure processing, material modification, bonding and assembly techniques are reviewed and discussed. The aim is to improve the function of diatom frustules allowing them to meet the design requirements of different types of micro devices. In addition, the importance of the comprehensive use of diatom processing methods in device research is discussed using biosensors and solar cells as examples, and the potential of bio-manufacturing technology based on diatom frustules is examined. Nature presents a wide range of functional structures. Particularly at the micro-and nanoscale, the complexity and functionality of biological structures are far greater than those of equivalent artificial devices, making these biological structures an appropriate subject for biotechnology and bio-manufacturing [1,2]. In our previous studies, we have reported bio-limited forming [3] and bio-replication forming [4,5] methods for manufacturing functional particles or surface morphology from biological structures. Micro devices with highly desirable structure and characteristics could be produced from biological micro-or nanostructures. Single-celled diatoms are widely distributed in rivers, lakes and other water bodies, and have a fast (exponential) reproductive rate. The cell wall of a diatom known as the frustule, has a transparent structure composed of amorphous silica [6]. The frustule has good mechanical strength [7,8], a variety of three-dimensional (3D) shapes [9,10], multi-level nanopores and microstructures [11,12], large surface area and unique optical properties [13][14][15], making it a potential novel functional material for bio-manufacturing. Studies on theoretical understanding, manufacturing methods and functionalization of diatom frustules are ongoing. In the last two centuries, the importance of diatom frustules in the field of micro-and nanotechnology has become increasingly evident. The potential of frustules has been extensively explored by academics and for commercial application. The resulting new theories and techniques have found wide application, leading to the formation of a new interdisciplinary area of research called diatom-based bio-nanotechnology (or diatom nanotechnology) [16][17][18][19][20][21]. The potential for diatoms in device applications, such as high-sensitivity gas sensors [22], drug delivery devices [23], biocarriers for biosensors [24][25][26][27], micro-filters [12,28], solar cells, battery electrodes and electroluminescent display devices [19] has been examined. However, the direct

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“…diatoms, the exoskeleton surfaces include up to three layers of pore structures, with pore sizes ranging from 60 nm to 1 μm. These hierarchical, porous structures give rise to the diatom frustules' extraordinary mechanical strength 4 , enormous surface area 5 , and unique optical properties 6,7 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards uniformly oriented diatom frustule monolayers: Experimental and theoretical analyses

Zhang

Ghaffarivardavagh

et al. 2016

Microsyst Nanoeng

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Diatoms are unicellular, photosynthetic algae that are ubiquitous in aquatic environments. Their unique, three-dimensional (3D) structured silica exoskeletons, also known as frustules, have drawn attention from a variety of research fields due to their extraordinary mechanical properties, enormous surface area, and unique optical properties. Despite their promising use in a range of applications, without methods to uniformly control the frustules' alignment/orientation, their full potential in technology development cannot be realized. In this paper, we realized and subsequently modeled a simple bubbling method for achieving large-area, uniformly oriented Coscinodiscus species diatom frustules. With the aid of bubble-induced agitations, close-packed frustule monolayers were achieved on the water-air interface with up to nearly 90% of frustules achieving uniform orientation. The interactions between bubble-induced agitations were modeled and analyzed, demonstrating frustule submersion and an adjustment of the orientation during the subsequent rise towards the water's surface to be fundamental to the experimentally observed uniformity. The method described in this study holds great potential for frustules' engineering applications in a variety of technologies, from sensors to energy-harvesting devices.

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The Glass Menagerie: diatoms for novel applications in nanotechnology

Cited by 378 publications

References 110 publications

Synthetic Morphogenesis

Synthetic Morphogenesis

Bio-manufacturing technology based on diatom micro- and nanostructure

Towards uniformly oriented diatom frustule monolayers: Experimental and theoretical analyses

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