Biocompatible graphene nanosheets grafted with poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) brushes via surface-initiated ARGET ATRP

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Gao, Yuan Wu, Tong Chen, Xin Cordie, Travis M. Zhao, Haili Xie, Linsheng Ma, Yulu Turng, Lih-Sheng
Copyright Year	2016
Abstract	Using robust chemistry to graft polymer brushes on graphene nanosheets would promote the development of graphene nanomaterials as a versatile platform for biomedical applications. Based on surface-initiated activators regenerated by the electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) technique, the study developed a protocol to prepare well-defined poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (HEMA) brushes on chemically reduced graphene oxide surfaces. ATR-FTIR, XPS and TEM characterizations demonstrate tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate to be an efficient reducing agent that provides controlled polymerization with a significant decreased Cu catalyst usage (down to about 20 ppm), and prevents trace amounts of elemental Cu residue on the graphene surface. Fetal bovine serum protein absorption assay reveals the effect of brush backbone structure change to tune the interfacial interaction between graphene nanosheets and proteins. Further, NIH-3T3 fibroblast cell and human umbilical vein endothelial cell viability assays indicate that the obtained graphene nanosheets meet the biocompatibility requirements to support fibroblast cells, even human cells, attach and proliferate. The approach and the graphene–polymer brush hybrid developed in this work should open new opportunities for a broader range of biomedical applications of carbon nanomaterials.
Starting Page	35641
Ending Page	35647
Page Count	7
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.1039/C6RA04223F
Volume Number	6
Alternate Webpage(s)	http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/c6/ra/c6ra04223f/c6ra04223f1.pdf
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA04223F
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article