Smart architectures from photosynthetic microorganisms and functional organic molecules
Gianluca Farinola
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

Jan. 21, 2016, 1 p.m.


Photosynthetic microorganisms represent a plentiful source of functional micro/nano structures that can be used to build smart supramolecular architectures and nanomaterials. Combining such specialized structures optimized by billions of years of evolution with tailored molecules paves the way for intriguing new materials for photonics, electronics and biomedicine. The lecture will present two examples of these nanohybrids.
i) Supramolecular photoconverters by chemical modification of photosynthetic bacterial enzymes. Chemical modifications are introduced to boost the performance of the resulting hybrids vis-à-vis the native protein and to assemble the enzyme molecules onto active surfaces for applications in bioelectronics.
ii) Nanostructures obtained by in vitro and/or in vivo functionalization of ornate biosilica shells of diatoms microalgae with functional organic molecules, for applications ranging from photonics to biomedicine.
The lecture will discuss the logic behind designing and synthesizing these micro/nano assemblies, highlighting the challenges raised by the controlled functionalization.
New concepts for materials’ design and synthesis can be envisaged by combining the biotechnological production and the tools of organic synthesis.



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Smart architectures from photosynthetic microorganisms and functional organic molecules
Gianluca Farinola
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

Jan. 21, 2016, 1 p.m.


Photosynthetic microorganisms represent a plentiful source of functional micro/nano structures that can be used to build smart supramolecular architectures and nanomaterials. Combining such specialized structures optimized by billions of years of evolution with tailored molecules paves the way for intriguing new materials for photonics, electronics and biomedicine. The lecture will present two examples of these nanohybrids.
i) Supramolecular photoconverters by chemical modification of photosynthetic bacterial enzymes. Chemical modifications are introduced to boost the performance of the resulting hybrids vis-à-vis the native protein and to assemble the enzyme molecules onto active surfaces for applications in bioelectronics.
ii) Nanostructures obtained by in vitro and/or in vivo functionalization of ornate biosilica shells of diatoms microalgae with functional organic molecules, for applications ranging from photonics to biomedicine.
The lecture will discuss the logic behind designing and synthesizing these micro/nano assemblies, highlighting the challenges raised by the controlled functionalization.
New concepts for materials’ design and synthesis can be envisaged by combining the biotechnological production and the tools of organic synthesis.



Share