Search

1 figure.-- Talk delivered at the SmallChem 2021 International online conference (17th-18th february 2021)., Amino-terminated oligoglycines non-covalently self-assemble, through cooperative hydrogen bonding formation, into biocompatible rigid 2D nanostructures called tectomers, either in solution or in surfacepromoted processes. 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 MWCNTCOOH and GO, respectively. The resulting composites were characterized by electron- and atomic force microscopies, UV-vis and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopies and contact angle measurements. Because of this high affinity of tectomers to GO, tectomers efficiently coat wet-spun GO fibers (Fig. 1). We also show that, due to their versatile surface chemistry, tectomers act as supramolecular peptidic adhesives for the immobilization of a variety of carbon nanomaterials, nanoparticles, molecules and drugs on the GO fiber surface therefore allowing GO fiber functionalization. The resulting ultrathin coatings exhibit remarkable water-resistant properties. This tectomer-based “double-sided sticky tape” fiber functionalization strategy can be extended to other fibers, fabrics and substrates, making it very attractive for technological and smart textile applications

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la XXXVII Reunión Bienal de la Real Sociedad Española de Química, celebrada en Donostia-San Sebastián del 26 al 30 de mayo de 2019., Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and European Regional Development Fund (MAT2016-77290-R), ESF and the Aragón Government (T43-17R) is gratefully acknowledged.

Work presented at the 25th International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials, 7th-11th september 2014, Madrid (Spain), Remarkable progress in the fabrication of carbon nanotube composite fibers has resulted through the development of the wet-spinning technique pioneered by Vigolo et al. [1] This process implies the fabrication of gel fibers as a result of the collapse of surfactant-stabilized carbon nanotube dispersions when injected into a coagulation bath. When dried, those gel fibers become solid fibers with high carbon nanotube contents (³ 50 wt.%), significantly higher than those achieved by other fiber spinning technologies, such as melt-spinning or electrospinning. We here report how this wet-spinning method provides carbon nanotube composite fibers with tunable properties, which mainly depend on the composition of the coagulation bath used. Polymers including polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) [2-5] and polyethylenimine (PEI) [6] have been here investigated as coagulants.[7] Remarkable transport-, supercapacitor- and electrochemical actuation properties are demonstrated for these coagulation wet-spun fibers, that can be woven into fabrics and therefore offer promise for a variety of electronic textile applications [2-4]., This work has been funded by the Fundación Domingo Martínez (Ayuda a la Investigación 2013).

of the poster presented at the International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials, 7th-11th September, Madrid, Spain., The ability of selected peptides based on the N-acetyl-VQIVXK framework to disperse singlewalled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in aqueous media has been investigated in this work, by means of electron microscopy, circular dichroism, and Raman and near infrared spectroscopies [1]. The peptide VQIVYK is a homologous sequence from tau protein, a microtubule-associated protein which aggregates to produce neurofibrillary tangles in neurons of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies [2, 3]. Our results suggest that amyloidogenic peptides wrap SWCNTs, forming an extensive hydrogen bonded β-sheet network. Peptides that form negligible β-sheet containing amyloid (AcVQIVAK and AcVQIVKK) do not form composites with SWCNTs. Thus, it has been estimated that about 60% of the ability of the peptides studied able to disperse SWCNTs can be attributed to hydrophobicity while the other ~40% can be attributed to the ability of the peptides to form β- sheet on the SWCNT surface. Understanding this peptide-SWCNTs interaction is a key issue toward the design of peptides which eventually may incorporate carbon nanotubes into biodevices.

4 figures.-- Work presented at the 3rd Graphene Conference, Graphene 2013, 23rd-26th April 2013, Bilbao (Spain)., Carbon nanotubes and graphene are fundamental nanoscale objects exhibiting a series of exceptional physical and chemical properties. Being lightweight, mechanically and thermally robust of high environmental stability, electrically conducting, and having a very high surface, makes them promising candidates for the development of novel electroactive electrode materials of special interest for applications in electrochemical sensing, energy storage and artificial muscles. Of uppermost interest for this purpose is their assembly into different macroscopic shapes ranging from thin coatings towards fibers. We here present our latest advances in the processing of carbon nanotubes [1] and graphene [2, 3] and respective composites using intrinsically conducting polymers [4]. Focus lays on the development of stable and homogeneous dispersions and their processing into different macroscopic forms ranging from supported films and coatings to fibers and free-standing paper-like materials thus underlining the wide range of potential technological applications for these functional materials., Financial support from Spanish Ministry MINECO under project MAT2010-15026, CSIC under project 201080E124, and the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund under project DGA-FSE-T66 CNN is acknowledged.

11 figures, 1 table.-- Supplementary information available., The development of membranes for nanofiltration applications requires not only selective layers but also suitable supports to control their synthesis as well as to enable efficient and competitive membrane performances. Single-walled carbon nanotube free-standing films (denoted as buckypaper) have been used as supports for the preparation of polyamide (PA) layers by interfacial polymerization (IP) and tested for dead-end nanofiltration for dyes removal (265–1017 Da) from water and organic solvents. The arrangement of the phases during the IP is essential, thus impregnation on the buckypaper support, first with the organic phase and then with the aqueous phase (denoted as inverse IP, iIP) leads to permeances (of up to 28.0 and 31.4 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for water and methanol, respectively) and rejection values (>96%) that exceed those of the membranes prepared by reversing the impregnation order. Secondly, a double layer PA/zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8 or ZIF-93) was prepared on the buckypaper (bp). The design of this double layer led to superior membrane performance, in particular for the hydrophilic ZIF-93, as it changes the PA layer properties (increasing both hydrophilicity and surface roughness) providing higher permeances (up to 59.3 and 76.0 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for water and methanol, respectively) and dye rejections (>98.5%) than the bare PA layer prepared by iIP. This attractive performance of the PA/ZIF-93/bp membrane has been corroborated with experiments in cross-flow nanofiltration and dead-end nanofiltration of aqueous salt solutions, long-term stability nanofiltration and the study the membrane separation performance after a chlorine treatment. The results reported here therefore show the enormous potential of these membrane architectures for a variety of selective separation processes., Grants PID2019-104009RB-I00 and PID2019-104272RB-C51 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 are gratefully acknowledged (Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and MCIN (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), Spain). The Aragón Government is also gratefully acknowledged (Grupos reconocidos T43_20R, T03_20R and E25_20R). V. B.-S. thanks the Grant BES-2017-080209 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”.

12 Figuras, Here we present a route for non-covalent functionalization of carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide with novel two-dimensional peptide assemblies. We show that self-assembled amino-terminated biantennary and tetraantennary oligoglycine peptides (referred to as tectomers) effectively coat carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes and also strongly interact with graphene oxide due to electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding as the driving force, respectively. The resulting hybrids can be made into free-standing conducting composites or applied in the form of thin, pH-switchable bioadhesive coatings onto graphene oxide fibers. Monitoring of cell viability of pancreatic cell lines, seeded on those CNT hybrids, show that they can be used as two- and three-dimensional scaffolds to tissue engineer tumour models for studying ex vivo the tumour development and response to treatment. This highly versatile method in producing pH-responsive hybrids and coatings offers an attractive platform for a variety of biomedical applications and for the development of functional materials such as smart textiles, sensors and bioelectronic devices., Authors thank the Fundación Domingo Martínez (Ayudas a la Investigación 2013), the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MINECO (Plan Nacional de I+D+I, Project CTQ2012-035535), DGA (Grupo Consolidado de Investigación Aplicada ref T08), CSIC Intramural Entorno Project, JMR ARC Future Fellowship (FT130100380), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant no. EP/K031562, University of Sussex Strategic Development Fund, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014 Enabling Excellence project, and the College of Applied Medical Sciences Research Center and the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for supporting this research.

In this article we give a general introduction into the field of carbon nanotubes. On one side we describe carbon nanotubes as fundamental nanoscale objects and explain their high application potential. On the other side, we focus on carbon nanotubes as non-homogeneous materials as obtained from different sources. Methods for production, characterization, purification and functionalization and dispersions are presented explaining chances, challenges and limitations. Finally, we deal with the broad field of applications for carbon nanotubes with special emphasis onto high performance carbon nanotube composite materials., The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from Regional Government of Aragon (DGA) under its “Group of Excellence” programme (DGA-T66). W.M. gratefully acknowledges funding from Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under project NANOPOLICOND (MAT 2006-13167-C02-02). E.M. and A.M.B gratefully acknowledge support by MEC and ERDF under project SENAGAS (TEC2004-05098-C02-02). A.M.B. and M.T.M. gratefully acknowledge funding from DGA under Priority Research Line Projects (PIPO21/2005 and PIPO15/2005).