Assembly of designed protein scaffolds into monolayers for nanoparticle patterning.

The controlled assembly of building blocks to achieve new nanostructured materials with defined properties at different length scales through rational design is the basis and future of bottom-up nanofabrication. This work describes the assembly of the idealized protein building block, the consensus tetratricopeptide repeat (CTPR), into monolayers by oriented immobilization of the blocks. The selectivity of thiol-gold interaction for an oriented immobilization has been verified by comparing a non-thiolated protein building block. The physical properties of the CTPR protein thin biomolecular films including topography, thickness, and viscoelasticity, are characterized. Finally, the ability of these scaffolds to act as templates for inorganic nanostructures has been demonstrated by the formation of well-packed gold nanoparticles (GNPs) monolayer patterned by the CTPR monolayer.