(190c) Silica Coating on a Bionanorod

Wild-type tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), the bionanorod, is reproducibly coated with silica via the base catalyzed reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in an aqueous methanolic solution. Our investigations have shown that smaller silica nanostructures are formed when methanol is used as a solvent for the base-catalyzed hydrolysis of TEOS. Additionally, the uncoated TMV particles are stable in aqueous methanolic solutions when the methanol concentration is less than 50 wt%. Several techniques are used to analyze the silica coated particles, including electron microscopy, EELS, x-ray scattering, and light scattering. A thin and consistent silica shell is found to exist around the intact virion particle which causes the TMV nanorod to be stable in pure methanol. The overall goal of this research is to functionalize the silica coating on the TMV nanorods for the formation of continuous-layered metal and ceramic coatings.