Synthesis and use of self-assembled rhamnolipid microtubules as templates for gold nanoparticles assembly to form gold microstructures.

Natural unmodified rhamnolipids are thermally self-assembled into soft microtubules, which can produce gold nanoparticles onto themselves due to the presence of rhamnose sugar moieties at their surface. The loading of gold nanoparticles on composite microtubules can be controlled by varying the concentration of gold salt to rhamnolipid and the reaction temperature. The composite rhamnolipid-gold nanoparticle microtubules are then heat treated to produce porous gold microwire-like structures with fairly controlled nanostructured features, which may have interesting applications in catalysis, biosensing and electronics. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.