Article Title
Enhanced and tunable fluorescent quantum dots within a single crystal of protein
Authors
Hui Wei, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Stephen House, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Jiangjiexing Wu, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology MOE, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Jiong Zhang, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Zidong Wang, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Ying He, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Elizabeth J. Gao, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Yigui Gao, George L. Clark X-Ray Facility and 3M Materials Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
Howard Robinson, Department of Biology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
Wei Li, Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology MOE, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Jianmin Zuo, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Ian M. Robertson, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Yi Lu, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
Keywords
functional bio-nanomaterials, quantum dots, protein single crystals, X-ray crystallography, tomography
Abstract
The design and synthesis of bio-nano hybrid materials can not only provide new materials with novel properties, but also advance our fundamental understanding of interactions between biomolecules and their abiotic counterparts. Here, we report a new approach to achieving such a goal by growing CdS quantum dots (QDs) within single crystals of lysozyme protein. This bio-nano hybrid emitted much stronger red fluorescence than its counterpart without the crystal, and such fluorescence properties could be either enhanced or suppressed by the addition of Ag(I) or Hg(II), respectively. The three-dimensional incorporation of CdS QDs within the lysozyme crystals was revealed by scanning transmission electron microscopy with electron tomography. More importantly, since our approach did not disrupt the crystalline nature of the lysozyme crystals, the metal and protein interactions were able to be studied by X-ray crystallography, thus providing insight into the role of Cd(II) in the CdS QDs formation.
Graphical Abstract
Publisher
Tsinghua University Press
Recommended Citation
Hui Wei,Stephen House,Jiangjiexing Wu,Jiong Zhang,Zidong Wang,Ying He,Elizabeth J. Gao,Yigui Gao,Howard Robinson,Wei Li,Jianmin Zuo,Ian M. Robertson,Yi Lu, Enhanced and tunable fluorescent quantum dots within a single crystal of protein. NanoRes.2013, 6(9): 627–634
