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Free‐Standing Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Superlattices Constructed with Engineered Protein Containers Show in Crystallo Catalytic Activity
Author(s) -
Lach Marcel,
Künzle Matthias,
Beck Tobias
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201705061
Subject(s) - nanoparticle , superlattice , catalysis , materials science , nanotechnology , oxide , metal , chemistry , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , optoelectronics , engineering , metallurgy
The construction of defined nanostructured catalysts is challenging. In previous work, we established a strategy to assemble binary nanoparticle superlattices with oppositely charged protein containers as building blocks. Here, we show that these free‐standing nanoparticle superlattices are catalytically active. The metal oxide nanoparticles inside the protein scaffold are accessible for a range of substrates and show oxidase‐like and peroxidase‐like activity. The stable superlattices can be reused for several reaction cycles. In contrast to bulk nanoparticle‐based catalysts, which are prone to aggregation and difficult to characterize, nanoparticle superlattices based on engineered protein containers provide an innovative synthetic route to structurally defined heterogeneous catalysts with control over nanoparticle size and composition.