Abstract
Diatom shells are a natural, theoretically unlimited material composed of silicon dioxide, with regular patterns of pores penetrating through their surface. For their characteristics, diatom shells show promise to be used as low cost, highly efficient drug carriers, sensor devices or other micro-devices. Here, we demonstrate diatom shells functionalized with gold nanoparticles for the harvesting and detection of biological analytes (bovine serum albumin—BSA) and chemical pollutants (mineral oil) in low abundance ranges, for applications in bioengineering, medicine, safety, and pollution monitoring.
Highlights
Diatoms are unicellular algae massively present on earth with over 100,00 species distributed in aquatic and semi-aquatic niches
Samples were maintained for 120 s in a diluted 2% hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution to remove small fragments, roughen diatoms surface, and promote Au nucleation
Samples where decorated with Au–NPs using of a photodeposition process
Summary
Diatoms are unicellular algae massively present on earth with over 100,00 species distributed in aquatic (oceans, lakes, rivers) and semi-aquatic (wetlands and soils) niches. Diatoms are natural (in opposition to artificial), abundant, low cost, and accessible three-dimensional micro- or nanoscale structures that do not require traditional techniques of nanofabrication for their production, and, in sight of their scale, morphology, and properties thereof, display potential for being utilized as miniature sensors, drug-delivery capsules, and other micro-devices [2, 13, 14]. Despite this promise, there are relatively few applications of diatoms in nanotechnology [15–17], possibly because, while diatom shells represents the required support for many structures, further functionalizations (modifications) are necessary to provide these structures with the correct functions
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