Abstract
Based on the unique ability of defibrillated sepiolite (SEP) to form stable and homogeneous colloidal dispersions of diverse types of nanoparticles in aqueous media under ultrasonication, multicomponent conductive nanoarchitectured materials integrating halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and chitosan (CHI) have been developed. The resulting nanohybrid suspensions could be easily formed into films or foams, where each individual component plays a critical role in the biocomposite: HNTs act as nanocontainers for bioactive species, GNPs provide electrical conductivity (enhanced by doping with MWCNTs) and, the CHI polymer matrix introduces mechanical and membrane properties that are of key significance for the development of electrochemical devices. The resulting characteristics allow for a possible application of these active elements as integrated multicomponent materials for advanced electrochemical devices such as biosensors and enzymatic biofuel cells. This strategy can be regarded as an “a la carte” menu, where the selection of the nanocomponents exhibiting different properties will determine a functional set of predetermined utility with SEP maintaining stable colloidal dispersions of different nanoparticles and polymers in water.
Highlights
In recent years, the “nanoarchitectonics” concept has helped to develop a large variety of materials with new functionalities [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The resulting nanohybrid suspensions could be formed into films or foams, where each individual component plays a critical role in the biocomposite: halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) act as nanocontainers for bioactive species, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) provide electrical conductivity and, the CHI polymer matrix introduces mechanical and membrane properties that are of key significance for the development of electrochemical devices
The access to the lumen of the HNTs appears to remain unblocked despite the assembly with the other components (Figure 3H), which is crucial for the effective use of HNTs as nanocontainers for bioactive molecules
Summary
The “nanoarchitectonics” concept has helped to develop a large variety of materials with new functionalities [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Based on the unique ability of defibrillated sepiolite (SEP) to form stable and homogeneous colloidal dispersions of diverse types of nanoparticles in aqueous media under ultrasonication, multicomponent conductive nanoarchitectured materials integrating halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and chitosan (CHI) have been developed.
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