Investigating Interactions between Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNCs) and Proteins
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Abstract
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are an emerging renewable and sustainable nanomaterial which has received increasing attention. They are abundant, nontoxic, biodegradable and chemically inert. CNCs have unique characteristics not met by traditional cellulose-derived materials, leading to investigations/applications of CNC's across all disciplines. The objective of this work is to investigate interactions of proteins with CNC's by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic techniques. Results indicated an electrostatic driven interaction that depends on incubation time, protein concentration and protein intrinsic properties such as molecular weight, charge distribution and iso-electric point. Understanding CNC-protein interactions aids in the development of new biosensing platforms that utilize green-material substrates. The usefulness of a CNC surface as a substrate for immunoassays was developed and evaluated by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). CNC films were shown to provide a suitable platform for antibody immobilization and antigen binding, with LOD’s comparable to other SPR based biosensors.