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Science 7 July 1995:
Vol. 269. no. 5220, pp. 54 - 57
DOI: 10.1126/science.269.5220.54
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Articles

Synthesis and Structure of an Iron(III) Sulfide-Ferritin Bioinorganic Nanocomposite

Trevor Douglas 1, Dominic P. E. Dickson 2, Steven Betteridge 2, John Charnock 3, C. David Garner 4, and Stephen Mann 1

1 School of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
2 Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK.
3 Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 4AD, UK.
4 Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.

Amorphous iron sulfide minerals containing either 500 or 3000 iron atoms in each cluster have been synthesized in situ within the nanodimensional cavity of horse spleen ferritin. Iron-57 Mössbauer spectroscopy indicated that most of the iron atoms in the 3000-iron atom cores are trivalent, whereas in the 500-iron atom clusters, approximately 50 percent of the iron atoms are Fe(III), with the remaining atoms having an effective oxidation state of about +2.5. Iron K-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure data for the 500-iron atom nanocomposite are consistent with a disordered array of edge-shared FeS4 tetrahedra, connected by Fe(S)2Fe bridges with bond lengths similar to those of the cubane-type motif of iron-sulfur clusters. The approach used here for the controlled synthesis of bioinorganic nanocomposites could be useful for the nanoscale engineering of dispersed materials with biocompatible and bioactive properties.

Submitted on February 9, 1995
Accepted on May 11, 1995


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