You've certainly read that nanotechnology can be used for many applications. Now, according to Nanowerk, researchers from the University of South Carolina have demonstrated that one electrically conductive polymer called polyaniline (PANi) could be used in conjunction with plant viruses to develop new materials. The researchers have used the rod-like tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) as a template. And their findings might lead to many potential applications including electronics, optics, sensing, and biomedical engineering. But read more...
You can see above a picture of how the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is used. "With the rod-like tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) as the template, 1D polyaniline/TMV composite nanofibers with narrow dispersity, high aspect ratio and high processibility can be readily prepared via a hierarchical assembly process. The length of the composite fiber can be as long as 10 µm. The composite nanofibers are monodisperse in width with an average diameter of ~21 nm determined by synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering experiments. Upon variation of the reaction conditions, the morphology and electrical properties of the TMV/composite fibers can be controlled." (Credit: Qian Wang group about how virus falls into line).
This research project has been led by Qian Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, and the members of his research group.
Here is what Wang said to Nanowerk. "Our findings of using biological nanoparticles as the template to fabricate 1D nanowires is a new concept by taking advantage of structural features of a plant virus. So far, few studies have reported the use of intrinsic self-assembly properties of biological particles. The key concept behind our study of TMV templated polymeric nanowire is to take advantage of the self-assembly pathway of the TMV itself."
Please read the Nanowerk article for more details. But for more details, this research work has been published online on November 17, 2007 in Nano Letters under the title "Biological Templated Synthesis of Water-Soluble Conductive Polymeric Nanowires."Here is a link to the abstract "One-dimensional (1D) conductive nanowire is one of the most important components for the development of nanosized electronic devices, sensors, and energy storage units. Great progresses have been made to prepare the 1D-conducting polymeric nanofibers by the low concentration process or the synthesis with hard or soft templates. However, it still remains as a great challenge to prepare polymeric nanofibers with narrow dispersity, high aspect ratio, and good processibility. With the rod-like tobacco mosaic virus as the template, 1D-conducting polyaniline and polypyrrole nanowires can be readily prepared via a hierarchical assembly process. This synthesis discloses a unique way to produce composite fibrillar materials with controlled morphology and great processibility, which can promote many potential applications including electronics, optics, sensing, and biomedical engineering."
Sources: Michael Berger, Nanowerk Spotlight, November 30, 2007; and various websites
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