Carbon-Based Hybrid Nanostructures for Advanced Functional Materials

All the carbon based nanomaterials (CNMs) are highly hydrophobic, which make them unsuitable for most of the applications in water and organic solvents. Aggregation phenomena significantly reduce the high performances displayed by the single nanostructure. Two main strategies allow to overcome this bottleneck: the chemical functionalization with hydrophilic functional groups or the non-covalent interaction between CNMs and amphiphilic molecules. The aim of this thesis has been to produce different carbon-based hybrid nanostructures to preserve the peculiar properties of CNMs and use them for advanced application in nanomedical and technological fields. In the first project, the potential application of fullerene (C60) as sensitizer for photodynamic therapy was explored. Monodispersity of fullerenes is the key feature for its potential application in this field. Noncovalent approach was used to disperse C60 in water, taking advantage from the surfactant-like properties of the proteins. C60@lyszoyme hybrid was used as model system to study the stability of fullerene in physiological conditions and to assess its ability to produce reactive oxygen species upon irradiations. The second subject of my research concerned the study of interactions between fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) and plasma proteins. FNDs show potential applications as probe for bioimaging but their tendency to aggregate in physiological environments is the main limit for their application. In this study, a procedure to keep monodispersed FNDs in relevant biological fluids was optimized and the composition of FNDs protein corona was extensively characterized. The third project was addressed to the manufacturing of graphene based calcite nanocomposite. Both covalent (graphene oxide) and non-covalent (graphene/biomolecules adducts) approaches were used to disperse graphene in water. Following a biological inspired synthetic procedure, it was possible to incorporate the 2D materials within a 3D crystal lattice, producing a nanocomposite possessing several new properties.