Shape directed biomineralization of gold nanoparticles using self-assembled lipid structures.

As one of the building blocks of the cell membrane, lipids and their interaction with neighboring lipids and other molecules, as well as their ability to form different kinds of structures, have garnered immense interest. By exploiting the effective shape and thermal-phase behavior of lipids, we have prepared lipid superstructures such as twisted ribbons and rectangular and hexagonal shaped lipidic nanostructures using the curvature tuned preparation method. These lipidic superstructures were then used as nanoreactor templates for the inorganic synthesis of diversely shaped and sized gold nanostructures exploring different administration routes of reducing agents, citrate, and tetrachloroauric acid, which as a result formed different organizations of gold nanoparticles aligned and guided by the template structure. Tailor-designed metallic nanostructures can be obtained through a careful selection of lipids and conditions for lipid superstructure preparation and their consequent use as template nanoreactors. The diversely sized and shaped gold nanostructures obtained have great potential for catalysis and plasmonics.