Peptide-Based Biomaterials. Linking L-Tyrosine and Poly L-Tyrosine to Graphene Oxide Nanoribbons

J. M. GONZáLEZ-DOMíNGUEZ; GUTIERREZ F.; J. HERNáNDEZ; A. ANSóN-CASAOS; RUBIANES M. D.,; G. A. RIVAS; MA. TERESA MARTINEZ

Journal of Materials Chemistry B

Royal Society of Chemistry

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2015 vol. 3 p. 3870 - 3884

2050-750X

Peptide-based biomaterials are actively being studied in a variety of applications in material science and biointerface engineering. Likewise, in the last decades, the potential biological applications of carbon nanomaterials, motivated by their size, shape, structure and their unique physical and chemical properties is being explored. In recent years, the functionalization of carbon nanotubes and graphene has led to the preparation of bioactive carbon nanomaterials that are being used in biomedicine as structural elements, in gene therapy and biosensing. In the present study, different strategies are given for the bonding of L-Tyrosine and the homopolypeptide Poly-L-Tyrosine (PTyr), to graphene oxide nanoribons (GONRs). Covalent attachment of L-Tyrosine was undertaken by amidation of the the α-amine group of tyrosine with the existing carboxylic groups in GONR and by esterification through phenol nucleophiles contained in their side-chains using in both cases protective groups to address the functionalization to the desired reactive groups. The linking of GONRs to the PTyr was carried out following two different strategies: ester bonding of commercial PTyr through their phenol side groups or, in situ by ring-opening polymerization of a N-carboxyanhydride tyrosine derivative (NCA-Tyr) with Tyr-functionalized GONRs. These biofunctionalized nanomaterials were characterized by Raman and FTIR spectroscopies, thermogravimetric analysis, transmission electron microscopy fluorescence and electrochemical techniques. Prospects for the potential utilization of the prepared hybrid nanomaterials in different applications are also given.