Shaped microcomponents via reactive conversion of biologically-derived microtemplates
First Claim
1. A method of producing a shaped microcomponent, comprising:
- a) depositing a silaffin into a pattern, said pattern having an original dimensional feature;
b) exposing said patterned silaffin to a silicon-containing solution to generate a silica microtemplate, said silica microtemplate having substantially the same dimensional feature as said patterned silaffin;
thenc) subjecting said silica microtemplate to at least one chemical reaction with a metal, so as to at least partially convert said silica microtemplate into a shaped microcomponent comprising a solid oxide,wherein said chemical reaction effects replacement of silicon with a metal ion and is selected from the group consisting of additive reactions, metathetic reactions, oxidation-reduction reactions, and combinations thereof; and
wherein said shaped microcomponent has substantially the same dimensional feature as said silica microtemplate.
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Abstract
The present invention is focused on a revolutionary, low-cost (highly-scaleable) approach for the mass production of three-dimensional microcomponents: the biological reproduction of naturally-derived, biocatalytically-derived, and/or genetically-tailored three-dimensional microtemplates (e.g., frustules of diatoms, microskeletons of radiolarians, shells of mollusks) with desired dimensional features, followed by reactive conversion of such microtemplates into microcomponents with desired compositions that differ from the starting microtemplate and with dimensional features that are similar to those of the starting microtemplate. Because the shapes of such microcomponents may be tailored through genetic engineering of the shapes of the microtemplates, such microcomposites are considered to be Genetically-Engineered Materials (GEMs).
7 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of producing a shaped microcomponent, comprising:
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a) depositing a silaffin into a pattern, said pattern having an original dimensional feature; b) exposing said patterned silaffin to a silicon-containing solution to generate a silica microtemplate, said silica microtemplate having substantially the same dimensional feature as said patterned silaffin;
thenc) subjecting said silica microtemplate to at least one chemical reaction with a metal, so as to at least partially convert said silica microtemplate into a shaped microcomponent comprising a solid oxide, wherein said chemical reaction effects replacement of silicon with a metal ion and is selected from the group consisting of additive reactions, metathetic reactions, oxidation-reduction reactions, and combinations thereof; and wherein said shaped microcomponent has substantially the same dimensional feature as said silica microtemplate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification