Polydopamine Nanotubes Research Articles

Modulating Zn(OH)2 Rods by Marine Alginate for Templates of Hybrid Tubes with Catalytic and Antimicrobial Properties

With the help of marine alginate, Zn(OH)2 nanorods were synthesized under mild conditions (e.g., room temperature and atmospheric pressure) through a one-step, green, and scalable method, in which both the morphologies (e.g., nanorods and nanoflakes) and nanoscale sizes of Zn(OH)2 could be precisely controlled by alginate. Considering the high reactive activity as well as the adhesion property of dopamine, polydopamine nanotubes were produced by the template of Zn(OH)2 rods and following a mussel-biomimetic strategy of dopamine coating. The enhanced activities of polydopamine surfaces further offered the possibility of embedding Ag nanoparticles to produce Ag nanotubes with super-catalytic and -antibacterial properties. The combination of inexpensive starting materials, simple synthesis procedure, and exceptional properties gives Zn(OH)2 rods/nanoflakes great potential as templates and for multiple applications in catalysis, sensing, etc.

Polydopamine Nanotubes as an Effective Fluorescent Quencher for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biomolecules Assisted with Exonuclease III Amplification.

In this work, the effective fluorescence quenching ability of polydopamine nanotubes (PDANTs) toward various fluorescent dyes was studied and further applied to fluorescent biosensing for the first time. The PDANTs could quench the fluorophores with different emission frequencies, aminomethylcoumarin acetate (AMCA), 6-carboxyfluorescein (FAM), 6-carboxytetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA), and Cy5. All the quenching efficiencies reached to more than 97%. Taking advantage of PDANTs' different affinities toward ssDNA and dsDNA and utilizing the complex of FAM-labeled ssDNA and PDANTs as a sensing platform, we achieved highly sensitive and selective detection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) DNA and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) assisted with Exonuclease III amplification. The limits of detection (LODs) of HIV DNA and ATP reached to 3.5 pM and 150 nM, respectively, which were all lower than that of previous nanoquenchers with Exo III amplification, and the platform also presented good applicability in biological samples. Fluorescent sensing applications of this nanotube enlightened other targets detection based upon it and enriched the building blocks of fluorescent sensing platforms. This polydopamine nanotube also possesses excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, which is suitable for future drug delivery, cell imaging, and other biological applications.

Scalable Fabrication of Polydopamine Nanotubes Based on Curcumin Crystals.

Herein we for the first time demonstrated a scalable and simple fabrication of polydopamine nanotubes by using curcumin crystal as templates. BET surface area of obtained polydopamine nanotubes is 51.9 m2/g. Polydopamine nanotubes show great potential as biocompatible porous nanomaterials.

Polydopamine nanotubes: bio-inspired synthesis, formaldehyde sensing properties and thermodynamic investigation

This work reports a bio-inspired synthesis of polydopamine (PDA) nanotubes and their application for sub-ppm level formaldehyde sensing. Thermodynamics study indicates that the PDA nanotubes are suitable for formaldehyde detection due to the moderate value of −ΔH°.