Supramolecular two-dimensional peptidic adhesives for graphene oxide fiber functionalization

Work presented at the nano Portugal 2020 Online Conference (nanoPT2020), Nanoscience and Nanotechnology International Conference, 23th - 24th september 2020.
Amino-terminated oligoglycines non-covalently self-assemble, through cooperative hydrogen bonding formation, into biocompatible rigid 2D nanostructures called tectomers. Tectomers effectively coat carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-COOH) and strongly interact with graphene oxide (GO). Electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding formation accounts for the strong interfacial interaction of tectomers with MWCNT-COOH and GO, respectively. Because of the high affinity of tectomers to GO, tectomers have been used to coat wet-spun GO fibers. We here show that, due to their versatile surface chemistry, tectomers act as supramolecular adhesives for nanomaterial and molecule immobilization on the GO fiber surface. Tectomer-coated GO fibers can then be subsequently decorated with a variety of carbon nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, carbon nanohorns, carbon nanocones, and highly fluorescent nanodiamonds), metal (gold, platinum, iron) nanoparticles, acrylate-based polymer nanoparticles, fluorophores and drugs. The resulting ultrathin coatings exhibit remarkable water resistant properties. We show that this tectomer-based “double-sided sticky tape” fiber functionalization strategy can be extended to other fibers and fabrics, such as polyurethane/PEDOT:PSS, poly(methyl methacrylate) and polyester, making it very attractive for a variety of technological and smart textile applications.