Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) show excellent morphological, electrical, and mechanical properties to provide structural reinforcement and electrical conductivity when incorporated into the engineered tissue scaffolds for possible directing neural cell growth [1]. But CNTs cannot be dispersed in aqueous medium directly and have been reported to have cytotoxic effects on cells. Therefore, functionalization with biocompatible materials can be applied to the CNTs to overcome these drawbacks. Peptide amphiphiles are good candidates to add diverse bio-functionality and water dispersibility to CNTs [2]. In this study, to obtain conductive, biocompatible, and extracellular matrix mimicking platforms, CNTs were surface functionalized through non-covalent interactions by positively (Lauryl-VVAGKK-Am, K2- PA) and negatively (Lauryl-VVAGEE-Am, E2-PA) charged peptide amphiphiles which formed hydrogel upon mixing them (Figure 1). The PA/CNT hydrogels were characterized in terms of structural, morphological, and rheological techniques. Morphological analyses revealed homogeneous fibrillar network structures for PA/CNT hydrogels. Slightly differences in viscoelastic properties were observed with the presence of CNTs for PA/CNT hydrogels compared to plain PA hydrogel.

[2] M. Sheikholeslam, M. Pritzker, P. Chen, Carbon, 71 2014, 284.