Diatomaceous Lessons in Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials

Diatoms occupy sunlit aquatic environments. From a materialsscientist’s point of view, these unicellular algae are microscopicsilica nanofabrication factories that use two overlapping valvessealed together by girdle bands to encase themselves in a silicafrustule. The frustule is created with 3D precision of tens ofnanometers, in a hierarchical manner, and with multifunctionalproperties (Fig. 1).