Integrated Magnetic Bionanocomposites through Nanoparticle-Mediated Assembly of Ferritin

Magnetic (FePt) and nonmagnetic (Au) nanoparticles were used to assemble ferritin into near-monodisperse bionanocomposites featuring regular interparticle spacing. The FePt/ferritin assemblies are integrated magnetic materials with ferritin providing added magnetic volume fraction to the magnetic nanocomposite. These assemblies differ from either of their constituent particles in terms of blocking temperature (TB), net magnetic moment, coercivity, and remnance.