英国巴斯(Bath)大学化学家 S·Mann等人,利用大分子蛋白质结构作为“反应笼”,成功地合成了具有纳米尺寸的无机粒子。产物具有独特的光、电及其它物理化学性质,在催化剂、光电子学等领域具有潜在的应用价值。他们选取富含铁的铁蛋白作为反应笼,用硫化氨作反应剂,使铁蛋白中的氧化铁核转变为硫化铁粒子,其粒度达7nm。另外,将脱铁铁蛋白(没有氧化铁核的铁蛋白)在含Mn~(2+)的溶液中处理后,还可制得氧化锰纳米级粒子。该法是利用了铁蛋白形成的生物大分子笼,其笼腔体积适宜形成纳米级大小粒子,并为粒子的 S Mann, a chemist at Bath University in the United Kingdom, successfully synthesized inorganic nano-sized particles using a macromolecular protein structure as a “reaction cage.” The product has a unique optical, electrical and other physical and chemical properties, in the field of catalysts, optoelectronics and other potential applications. They selected the iron-rich ferritin as the reaction cage, ammonia sulfide as a reactant, the ferritin iron oxide nuclei into iron sulfide particles, the particle size of 7nm. In addition, manganese oxide nanoparticles can also be prepared by treating apo (ferritin without ferric oxide nuclei) in a Mn2 + -containing solution. The law is the use of ferritin formed biological macromolecular cage, cage volume suitable for the formation of nano-size particles, and the particle