Layered Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposites made by Layer-by-Layer Assembly

Keywords:
nanowires, nanoparticles, self-assembly, bioconjugates, layer-by-layer, SWNT, neurons, bone marrow

Abstract:
Layered nanocomposites with high degree of organization can be prepared from polymers and different nanocolloids such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes, clay platelets, and proteins by means of a new thin film deposition technique known as layer-by-layer assembly (LBL). Besides being mechanically strong, magnetically- and optically active, many of them have useful properties as biomaterials, which will be highlighted in this talk. Control of distance and orientation of some anisotropic nanocolloids in the multilayers afford fine-tuning of the composite properties, and in particular biological ones. The possibility to engineer the nanomaterials-neuron interface to attain efficient transport of excitation through the films from nanoparticles and/or carbon nanotubes) will be demonstrated. Combination of several nanomaterials in a multilayer stack affords preparation of hybrid neuron-nanocomposite device with retina functionalities. Another example of nanotechnological approach of to biomaterials will be given for engineering of functional analog of bone marrow. Inverted colloidal crystals were applied as 3D scaffolds for stromal cell cultures. Deposition of biologically active coatings on the scaffold walls affords substantial increase of density of attached stromal and thymic epithelial cells. It is demonstrated that the 3D organization and stromal-stem cell interactions make possible control of stem cell differentiation into lymphoidal cell lineages effectively creating an ex-vivo replica of bone marrow.

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Nanotech 2005 Conference Program Abstract