Protein-Assisted Solubilization of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

We report a simple method that uses proteins to solubilize single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in water. Characterization by a variety of complementary techniques including UV-Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy confirmed the dispersion at the individual nanotube level. A variety of proteins differing in size and structure were used to generate individual nanotube solutions by this noncovalent functionalization procedure. Protein-mediated solubilization of nanotubes in water may be important for biomedical applications. This method of solubilization may also find use in approaches for controlling the assembly of nanostructures, and the wide variety of functional groups present on the adsorbed proteins may be used as orthogonal reactive handles for the functionalization of carbon nanotubes.

Multimodal Biomedical Imaging with Asymmetric Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube/Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Complexes

“…Fe catalyst-grown SWNT were individually dispersed in aqueous solution via encapsulation by oligonucleotides with the sequence d(GT) 15 , and enriched using a 0.5 T magnetic array. The resulting nanotube complexes show distinct NIR fluorescence, Raman scattering, and visible/NIR absorbance features, corresponding to the various nanotube species.…”

Electrochemical sensors based on carbon nanotubes and their use in biomedical research.Part 2: sensors manufactured by dispersion of carbon nanotubes by means of polyethyleneimine, organic dyes, cyclodextrins, chitosan, proteins, room-temperature ionic liquids, gels, and thiols. Sensors manufactured by dispersion of carbon nanotubes by electropolymerization process. sensors manufactured by dispersion of carbon nanotubes by layer-by-layer deposition

“…Технологии изготовления электрохимических сенсоров путём нанесения углеродных нанотрубок на рабочую поверхность электрода с помощью полиэтиленимина [2][3][4][5][6][7], органических красителей [9,[11][12][13] и циклодекстринов [14][15][16][17] схожи между собой: нанотрубки распределяются в растворах перечисленных химических соединений, образуя гомогенную суспензию, которая далее наносится на поверхность электрода с последующим высыханием. Хитозан [18][19][20][21][22], белковые соединения [23,24], ионные жидкости [25,26], гели [27,28] и тиолы [29][30][31] также могут использоваться для нанесения углеродных нанотрубок на рабочую поверхность стеклоуглеродного, золотого или др. электрода.…”

“…Было отмечено, что взаимодействие указанных нанотрубок и белков также не сопровождается формированием ковалентных связей. Вместе с тем, широкое разнообразие функциональных групп, присутствующих в составе белков, может быть полезным для образования как ковалентных, так и нековалентных связей с другими химическими соединениями [24].…”

Structures of Hybrids of DNA and Carbon Nanotubes Observed by Atomic Force Microscopy in Air and in Liquids

“…Techniques of attaching biomolecules onto carbon nanotubes (CNT) surfaces, especially onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) have been developed by many research groups since 2003 [1][2][3]. This technique was originally developed from the viewpoint of material sciences in order to dissolve CNTs in aqueous solutions.…”