Authors:

Josephine Lesley Liebrata

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Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus (BSMV) is a plant virus that acts as a bio-template for metal deposition to synthesize nanorods. The coating of metals such as palladium (Pd) on BSMV provides a higher adsorption capacity compared to the previously employed Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), increasing cost- and time efficiency. High-quality nanorods could be utilized to develop highly-demanded devices such as batteries, nanoelectronics, and sensors. This project aims to determine what palladium solution works optimally in limiting the generation of palladium clusters while still providing even coatings on BSMV. Sodium tetrachloropalladate solution easily undergoes hydrolysis reactions, forming undesired palladium species in the form of clusters. The experiment began by heating a sodium tetrachloropalladate solution at 57 C for 30 minutes. The solution was centrifuged to remove undesired palladium species and was diluted before examining it with Ultraviolet-Visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis). Significant peaks in the UV-Vis spectrophotometry spectrum indicate the absorbance of desired or soluble palladium species, which could be utilized to calculate the optimal palladium solution. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) would measure the growth rate of undesired palladium species. Upon achieving these, coatings of palladium on BSMV were performed. Three coating processes were done per sample, with five subsequent washes after each coating. Finally, the palladium-coated BSMV was imaged under Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). At optimized conditions, the nanorods would have smooth coatings with minimum aggregations. A sodium tetrachloropalladate solution with a lower pH yields a higher retainment percentage of soluble palladium species and hence is suitable for palladium solution preparation.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

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Co-authors:

Josephine Lesley Liebrata