Abstract
The main aim in this contribution is to discuss the application of bioconjugates for 2D material exfoliation and catalysis. Many emerging biosensors have incorporated bioconjugates and nanomaterials in their design due to their electronic character, size, biocompatibility, and high sensitivity. Various types of bioconjugates, mainly fatty acid based, are discussed in Chapter 1, as well the conditions to be considered for designing multifunctional chimeric peptides. Bio-inspired nanosystems are also discussed to give insight into the effects of functionalizing a nanoparticle or nanosheet with bioconjugates. Past research that used bioconjugates for exfoliation and catalysis were included to give validity to the results observed in this study. Fatty-acid modified peptides were the first biomolecules to be constructed and examined for their binding affinity to graphene (Chapter 2). Theses peptides were constructed by coupling fatty acids of varying length, from 6 to 12 carbons, at the N- or C-terminus of P1 (sequence: HSSYWYAFNNKT), a peptide proven to bind to the basal plane of graphene. Once the binding of these bioconjugates was confirmed, these peptides were used to exfoliate graphene via probe sonication, as seen in Chapter 3. A new method for peptide-driven graphene exfoliation was established, which proved more efficient than bath sonication. These same methods were used for peptide driven MoS2 exfoliation in aqueous medium (Chapter 4). MoS2 and graphene were both exfoliated using similar methods to demonstrate the diversity and utility of peptides/bioconjugates. Chapter 5 further emphasizes their versatility by functionalizing chimeric peptides to a gold (Au) nanoparticle to be used for tandem catalysis. The chimeric peptides consist of two peptide domains, a material binding and catalytic domain, separated by a 4-glycine space. The combined works presented here led to optimized conditions for the binding of bioconjugates onto nanomaterials for exfoliation and catalysis.