International Journal of Nanomedicine (May 2017)
Two-dimensional collagen-graphene as colloidal templates for biocompatible inorganic nanomaterial synthesis
Abstract
Divya Kumari,1,* Lubna Sheikh,1,* Soumya Bhattacharya,1,* Thomas J Webster,2 Suprabha Nayar1 1Materials Science and Technology Division, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Burmamines, Jamshedpur, India; 2Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: In this study, natural graphite was first converted to collagen-graphene composites and then used as templates for the synthesis of nanoparticles of silver, iron oxide, and hydroxyapatite. X-ray diffraction did not show any diffraction peaks of graphene in the composites after inorganic nucleation, compared to the naked composite which showed (002) and (004) peaks. Scanning electron micrographs showed lateral gluing/docking of these composites, possibly driven by an electrostatic attraction between the positive layers of one stack and negative layers of another, which became distorted after inorganic nucleation. Docking resulted in single layer-like characteristics in certain places, as seen under transmission electron microscopy, but sp2/sp3 ratios from Raman analysis inferred three-layer composite formation. Strain-induced folding of these layers into uniform clusters at the point of critical nucleation, revealed beautiful microstructures under scanning electron microscopy. Lastly, cell viability studies using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays showed the highest cell viability for the collagen-graphene-hydroxyapatite composites. In this manner, this study provided – to the field of nanomedicine – a new process for the synthesis of several nanoparticles (with low toxicity) of high interest for numerous medical applications. Keywords: composites, graphene, collagen, lateral gluing, and inorganic nanoparticles
