Fabrication of Polymeric Composite Nanostructures Containing Ferritin Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes
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0921-T05-12
Fabrication of Polymeric Composite Nanostructures Containing Ferritin Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes Min Kyoon Shin, Sang Jun Park, Seong Gil Yoon, Chang Kee Lee, Kwang Min Shin, Su Ryon Shin, Bon Kang Gu, Min Sup Kim, Yu Jin Kim, and Seon Jeong Kim Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seongdong P.O.Box 55, 133-791, Seoul, Korea, Republic of
ABSTRACT Composite nanofibers including ferritin nanoparticles or multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were fabricated because of their potential advantages for the enhancement of physical properties such as elastic modulus and electric conductivity. Ferritin was homogeneously incorporated in polymeric nanofibers. However, excessive addition of CNTs to a polymer solution resulted in the fabrication of composite nanofibers with rough surfaces. Finally, PVA/ferritin/CNT composite nanofibers were fabricated, and they had smooth surfaces, and maintained well dispersion of ferritin and CNTs. The composite nanofibers would be applicable to artificial muscles requiring the enhanced physical properties. INTRODUCTION Recently, composite nanostructures containing nanoparticles or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted much attention due to the possibilities of their enhanced mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties [1-4]. Among many nanoparticles that can form composite nanostructures, ferritin nanoparticles can be a good candidate because of their electrochemical and electrical properties [5-7]. In particular, because ferritin is a biomolecule that stores irons inside its core surrounded by a protein shell [8], biocompatible composite nanostructures can be fabricated using ferritin. The CNTs have intrinsic properties such as high electrical conductivity, high elastic modulus, and protein-affinity [9,10]. Even though there are many methods for fabricating composite nanostructures, electrospinning has been a useful technique for producing polymeric composite nanostructures due to the convenient conversion of polymer blend solutions into composite nanostructures at room temperature [11]. The electrospinning is an electrostatic process that uses high voltages to induce the formation of a liquid jet. When a high voltage is applied to a syringe tip containing a polymer solution, a conical object known as the Taylor cone is formed. Once the electrostatic force overcomes the surface tension of the polymer solution, a liquid jet is ejected from the syringe tip, and then undergoes a whipping (or bending) instability, leading to the formation of long and thin fibers. Finally, randomly oriented nanofibers are deposited on an electrode [12,13]. In this work, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/ferritin nanofibers, PVA/CNT nanofibers, and PVA/CNT/ferritin nanofibers were fabricated using an electrospinning process.
EXPERIMENT Ferritin (Type І from horse spleen) samples dissolved to a concentration of 76 mg/mL in a 0.15 M NaCl solution were purchased from Sigma Chemicals (USA). The multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) used in the preparation of the dispersion were pur
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