Simultaneous silver recovery and bactericidal bionanocomposite formation via engineered biomolecules

Abstract

Biomolecules natively possess specific interactions with metals and thus can be promising tools for precious metal recovery from solution phase. In this study, we genetically engineered a biomolecule consisting of a silver-binding peptide and a cellulose-binding domain for simultaneous silver recovery and bactericidal bionanocomposite formation. This is the first research demonstrating this rapid, green and eco-friendly concept for one-pot silver recovery and antimicrobial material synthesis.