Thermal and aqueous stability improvement of graphene oxide enhanced diphenylalanine nanocomposites

Kate Ryan, Sabine M. Neumayer, Harsha Vardhan R. Maraka, Nicolae Viorel Buchete, Andrei L. Kholkin, James H. Rice, Brian J. Rodriguez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nanocomposites of diphenylalanine (FF) and carbon based materials provide an opportunity to overcome drawbacks associated with using FF micro- and nanostructures in nanobiotechnology applications, in particular their poor structural stability in liquid solutions. In this study, FF/graphene oxide (GO) composites were found to self-assemble into layered micro- and nanostructures, which exhibited improved thermal and aqueous stability. Dependent on the FF/GO ratio, the solubility of these structures was reduced to 35.65% after 30 min as compared to 92.4% for pure FF samples. Such functional nanocomposites may extend the use of FF structures to e.g. biosensing, electrochemical, electromechanical or electronic applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)172-179
Number of pages8
JournalScience and Technology of Advanced Materials
Volume18
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2017
Externally publishedYes

Funding

The work was supported by the European Commission within FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network ‘Nanomotion’ [grant agreement no. 290158]. Part of this work was supported by Science Foundation Ireland [14/US/I3113 and SFI07/IN1/B931]. The work was partially supported through the DGPP which was funded under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) Cycle 5 and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The work was also supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research [16-29-14050] and by the CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679; FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2013], financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. The authors are grateful to Dr James Sullivan and Rory Herron for access to thermogravimetric measurements, Dr Bartlomiej Lukasz for assistance with SEM, Dr Gareth Redmond for insightful discussions, and Dr Dimitri Scholz for access to instrumentation of the UCD Conway Imaging Core Facility.

Keywords

  • Diphenylalanine
  • aqueous stability
  • graphene oxide
  • nanocomposites
  • peptide nanotubes

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