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Arginine Side Chains as a Dispersant for Individual Single‐Wall Carbon Nanotubes
Author(s) -
Hirano Atsushi,
Tanaka Takeshi,
Kataura Hiromichi,
Kameda Tomoshi
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201400003
Subject(s) - carbon nanotube , side chain , van der waals force , dispersant , covalent bond , molecular dynamics , electrostatic interaction , lysine , materials science , aqueous solution , chemistry , arginine , nanotechnology , polymer , chemical engineering , dispersion (optics) , organic chemistry , amino acid , computational chemistry , chemical physics , molecule , biochemistry , optics , physics , engineering
Charged peptides and proteins disperse single‐wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in aqueous solutions. However, little is known about the role of their side chains in their interactions with SWCNTs. Homopolypeptide–SWCNT systems are ideal for investigating the mechanisms of such interactions. In this study, we demonstrate that SWCNTs are individually dispersed by poly‐ L ‐arginine (PLA). The debundled SWCNTs exhibited a distinct fluorescence. The dispersibility of SWCNTs with PLA was greater than that of SWCNTs with poly‐ L ‐lysine (PLL). Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the side chains of PLA have stronger interactions with the sidewalls of SWCNTs compared with those of PLL. The guanidinium group at the end of the side chain of an arginine residue plays an important role in the interaction with SWCNTs, likely through hydrophobic, van der Waals, and π–π interactions. PLA can be useful as a tool for the dispersion of SWCNTs and can be used to non‐covalently anchor materials to SWCNTs with strong binding.