Stability Controlling of L-arginine- and L-nitroarginine-Functionalized Graphene Oxide

Abstract

"Nowadays, the field of 2D materials continues to evolve rapidly due to their unique physicochemical properties. In particular, there has been considerable emphasis on graphene oxide (GO) which is a derivative of graphene obtained by oxidizing graphite layers [1]. Moreover, the functionalization of GO enhances its application potential across various fields such as drug delivery, bioimaging, catalysis, sensing, etc. [2]. In this work, we focus on electrochemical exfoliation of GO and its functionalization with amino acids (AA), namely L-arginine (L-Arg) and L-nitroarginine (L-NArg). The nitro group in L-NArg introduces additional chemical reactivity and functionalities to GO, namely enhancing the dispersibility in aqueous or biological environments, improving stability, and biocompatibility. We examine the impact of pH on the aforementioned structures, demonstrating the peculiarities of their pH-dependent behavior. Besides, Z-potential measurements were done for studying the stability problem of AA-functionalized GO complexes. Moreover, we characterize AA-functionalized GO nanocomposites using Impedance Spectroscopy. Our results reveal that L-NArg improves GO’s stability more than L-Arg. On the other hand, the incorporation of AA onto GO sheets alters their electronic properties, namely enhancing electrical conductivity and charge transport characteristics. For comprehensiveness of our research, we additionally carried out the crystallographic structure, chemical compound, bond phase, optical properties, morphology, and particle size distribution analysis of AA-functionalized GO by XRD, FTIR-ATR, Raman, UV-Vis, SEM, and DLS techniques. "

Publication
2nd International Conference on Advanced Materials for Bio-Related Applications