An inorganic
nanowire having an organic
scaffold substantially removed from the inorganic
nanowire, the inorganic
nanowire consisting essentially of fused
inorganic nanoparticles substantially free of the organic
scaffold, and methods of making same. For example, a
virus-based
scaffold for the synthesis of
single crystal ZnS, CdS and free-standing L10 CoPt and FePt nanowires can be used, with the means of modifying
substrate specificity through standard biological methods. Peptides can be selected through an evolutionary screening process that exhibit control of composition, size, and phase during
nanoparticle nucleation have been expressed on the highly ordered filamentous
capsid of the M13
bacteriophage. The incorporation of specific, nucleating peptides into the generic scaffold of the M13 coat structure can provide a viable template for the directed synthesis of a variety of materials including semiconducting and magnetic materials. Removal of the viral template via annealing can promote oriented aggregation-based
crystal growth, forming individual crystalline nanowires. The unique ability to interchange substrate specific peptides into the linear self-assembled filamentous construct of the M13
virus introduces a material tunability not seen in previous synthetic routes. Therefore, this
system provides a genetic tool kit for growing and organizing nanowires from various materials including semiconducting and magnetic materials.