Volume 30, Issue 18 pp. 1538-1542
Communication

Layer-by-Layer Assembled Nanotubes as Biomimetic Nanoreactors for Calcium Carbonate Deposition

Qiang He

Qiang He

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany

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Helmuth Möhwald

Helmuth Möhwald

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany

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Junbai Li

Corresponding Author

Junbai Li

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), International Joint Lab, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), International Joint Lab, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China. Fax: +86 10 82612629Search for more papers by this author
First published: 09 September 2009
Citations: 22

Abstract

Enzyme-loaded magnetic polyelectrolyte multilayer nanotubes prepared by layer-by-layer assembly combined with the porous template could be used as biomimetic nanoreactors. It is demonstrated that calcium carbonate can be biomimetically synthesized inside the cavities of the polyelectrolyte nanotubes by the catalysis of urease, and the size of the calcium carbonate precipitates was controlled by the cavity dimensions. The metastable structure of the calcium carbonate precipitates inside the nanotubes was protected by the outer shell of the polyelectrolyte multilayers. These features may allow polyelectrolyte nanotubes to be applied in the fields of nanomaterials synthesis, controlled release, and drug delivery.

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