Crystal Plane- and Size-Dependent Protein Adsorption on Nanozeolite

In this study, nanozeolites LTL with different exposed crystal planes and sizes were synthesized as excellent model material to study the effects of the crystal plane and size of the nanozeolite on the protein adsorption behaviors. A larger protein adsorption amount is observed on the smaller nanocrystals due to their larger surface area. More importantly, it is found that the (001) crystal plane with a 12-membered ring channel array has a larger contribution for protein adsorption on zeolite LTL nanocrystals than the other two dimensions with a very small pore opening (1.5 Å). It is proposed that the difference of protein adsorption on various crystal planes could be attributed to abundant exposed pore openings on the top (bottom) surface and curved surface of the side surface in columned nanozeolites LTL. This fact shows that the nanoscaled topography is also an important factor determining protein adsorption on the surface of nanozeolites, and efforts in the future should be focused on the synthesis of nanozeolites LTL with abundant exposed (001) planes. This observation will provide a new view for bioapplication and design of crystalline nanomaterials.