TEMPLATE MINERALIZATION OF SELF-ASSEMBLED ANISOTROPIC LIPID MICROSTRUCTURES

THE high-fidelity replication and functional specificity of biomateria ls and biopolymers is inspiring a renewal in the development of biomim etic strategies for materials synthesis1,2. Approaches involving the t emplating or nucleation of inorganic materials by compressed monolayer s of amphiphiles3-5, the use of supramolecular lipid or protein cages in the preparation of nanoscale inorganic structures6-8 and the minera lization of bacterial fibres9 indicate the potential of controlled cry stallization at inorganic-organic interfaces. Here we report the contr olled formation of tubular inorganic-organic composites by using self- assembled lipid tubules as templates for the crystallization of inorga nic oxides. We use microstructures formed by a sugar-based lipid galac tocerebroside, doped with small amounts of an anionic sulphated deriva tive, to induce nucleation of magnetic and non-magnetic iron oxides. B y varying the reaction conditions, we can create either tube-like or l amellar disk-like composites. Our results suggest that the variety of microstructures formed by chemically modified sugar-based lipids may p rovide a route to the production of mineral-containing fibres and othe r ceramic-organic composites.