One-dimensional magnetic nanowires obtained by protein fibril biotemplating

Abstract

Magnetic nanowires were obtained through the in situ synthesis of magnetic material by Fe-controlled nanoprecipitation in the presence of two different protein (human serum albumin (HSA) and lysozyme (Lys)) fibrils as biotemplating agents. The structural characteristics of the biotemplates were transferred to the hybrid magnetic wires. They exhibited excellent magnetic properties as a consequence of the 1D assembly and fusion of magnetite nanoparticles as ascertained by SQUID magnetometry. Prompted by these findings, we also checked their potential applicability as MRI contrast agents. The magnetic wires exhibited large r(2)* relaxivities and sufficient contrast resolution even in the presence of an extremely small amount of Fe in the magnetic hybrids, which would potentially enable their use as T(2) contrast imaging agents.