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CHAPTER 13. Proteins Engineer the Size and Morphology of Noble Metal Nanoparticles

The controllability of size and morphology of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) makes such materials promising and reliable for their performance in a range of fields. In order to obtain well-defined metal NPs for the desired applications, careful control of the evolution of nucleation and growth process by adjusting the thermodynamics and kinetic conditions is necessary. Actually, proteins acting as a green type of reducing and capping agents can drive the shape evolution of metal NPs in a controllable and precise manner. Thanks to the diverse functional chemical groups inside the proteins, proteins will be able to act in both of the above-mentioned roles. In order to extensively understand the role of proteins and peptides as reducing and capping agents during the metal NP synthesis approaches, we have summarized the current status of this topic in this chapter. For instance, the synthetic methodologies of noble metal NPs with tunable and excellent properties have gained extensive attention because of the numerous advantages of protein-enabled approaches. Importantly, the role of sequence (binding motif, strength and specificity), conformation/configurations, pH values and concentrations of peptides and proteins on the synthesis of metal NPs has been explored. This chapter will help the readers to better understand the processes involved in the tailoring of the size and morphology of noble metal NPs via protein-enabled approaches.