Harnessing Intracellular Biochemical Pathways for In Vitro Synthesis of Designer Tellurium Nanorods

Abstract

Synthesizing nanomaterials of desired properties is a big challenge, which requires extremely harsh conditions and/or use of toxic materials. More recently developed in vivo methods have brought a different set of problems such as separation and purification of nanomaterials made in vivo. Here, a novel approach that harnesses cellular pathways for in vitro synthesis of high-quality tellurium nanorods with tunable lengths and optical properties is reported. It is first demonstrated that in vivo biochemical pathways could be used to synthesize Te nanorods via the intracellular reduction of TeO3(2-) in living Staphylococcus aureus cells. The pathways to set up a quasi-biological system for Te precursor formation are then utilized, which could further synthesize Te nanorods in vitro. This allows to successfully synthesize in vitro, under routine laboratory conditions, Te nanorods with uniform and tunable lengths, ranging from about 10 to 200 nm, and controllable optical properties with high molar extinction coefficients. The approach here should open new avenues for controllable, facile, and efficient synthesis of designer nanomaterials for diverse industrial and biomedical applications.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; designer nanomaterials; in vitro synthesis; intracellular biochemical pathways; nanorods.