Biomimetic silicification to mimic 3D ornate diatom structures - a myth or a reality?

The intricate, hierarchical and exquisite biosilica structures formed by diatoms have generated great interest in the scientific community, especially among material scientists to understand the process of biosilicification in nature. Although this quest has driven them to understand and replicate the biosilicification process in the laboratories via biomimetics, it has yet been met with rather limited success. The research over the last decade has provided us with significant understanding of the biomolecules involved in the biosilicification process, however the ability to mimic the complexity of the 3D ornate diatomaceous structures is still an open challenge. This has led to the belief that the physico-chemical environment surrounding diatoms might play an additional but critical role towards attaining specific morphologies in different diatomaceous species. In the current study, we demonstrate this proof-of-concept by using amino acids as catalyst/template towards attaining complex diatom-like morphology under biomimetic conditions in ionic liquids as well as gaining insight on the biosilicification process.