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

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, a 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. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.