J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2020, Vol. 46: 74-87.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2020.01.008

• Invited Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Design, preparation and measurement of protein/CNTs hybrids: A concise review

Xing Zhoua,b,c, Jian Sub, Chenxi Wanga, Changqing Fanga,c,**(), Xinyu Hea, Wanqing Leia,c, Chaoqun Zhangd, Zhigang Huange,*()   

  1. aFaculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, China
    bSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, China
    cSchool of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, China
    dCollege of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
    eSchool of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, 100048, China
  • Received:2019-03-15 Revised:2019-09-22 Accepted:2019-09-23 Published:2020-06-01 Online:2020-06-19
  • Contact: Changqing Fang,Zhigang Huang
  • About author:Xing Zhou is currently an associate Professor at the Xi’an University of Technology, China. His research is focused on waterborne polyurethane synthesis and the application in water-based printing ink and packaging adhesion, recycling of waste packaging polymers, and nanohybrids. So far, he has published more than 30 papers in international peer-reviewed journals.|Changqing Fang is currently a Professor at the Xi’an University of Technology, China. He is the dean of ‘Faculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology’. His research is focused on the recycling of waste packaging plastic and the preparation of novel packaging materials. So far, he has published nearly 120 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. The papers have been cited more than 1000 times.|Zhigang Huang is a Professor at the Beijing Technology and Business University, China. His research is focused on process control of packaging materials and the application in food. He is currently a senior researcher and group leader of the School of Material and Mechanical Engineering.

Abstract:

With the development of nanobiotechnology, the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and protein hybrids system has attracted an increasing attention for great potential application in nanotechnology, medicine, smart materials, light industry, and biology. In this review, the main preparation processes, impact factors, measurement of interactions and potential applications of CNTs/protein are presented from the aspect of experiments. Meanwhile, the proper forces detection methods are illustrated comprehensively to complete the quantitative measurement. Atomic force microscope (AFM) and surface force apparatus (SFA) experiments are described in detail to confirm the powerful function in measuring the interaction forces. In addition, the impact of different protein structures (amino acid residues, α Helix, polypeptide chain, and assembled subunits) on interactions between CNTs and protein is presented and different amino acid residues may intervene largely on interactions. Owing to the relatively little knowledge about the structure, function, and spatial orientation of proteins interaction with CNTs surface, we assume that the key problem is how to prepare CNTs and protein specimen with unique structure (such as the variation of secondary and tridimensional structure of protein or the single CNTs) to investigate the interaction forces instead of the designed, preparation, and detection methods.

Key words: Assembly, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), Hybrid composites, Protein adsorption, Interaction