Abstract
Films of carbon nanotubes, known as buckypaper, have been fabricated, characterised, and used as nucleants for protein crystallisation, cell growth substrates, and actuators. The advantages of the films are their easy preparation, and the controllability of surface area, pore size distribution (inter-tube space), surface wetting ability, surface roughness and mechanical properties.Quantitative experiments have shown the effectiveness of buckypaper in inducing crystallisation as a function of location in the phase diagram of protein lysozyme. Cells are known to respond to nanoscale features and control over cell growth and behaviour is required for applications such growing parts of tissues. We have employed assemblies of carbon nanotubes as thin films for substrates for cell growth, with surface features that can be controlled on the nanoscale. We have studied both isotropic and anisotropic surfaces. Chinese Hamster Ovarian and liver cells (Huh 7) have both been grown on the substrate. Interestingly, the results show that the surface morphology, especially anisotropy, of the scaffold strongly affects cell morphology. This may lead to improvements in our fundamental understanding of how such alignment is produced which is of great importance in cellular and tissue engineering. Our studies of the actuating response of buckypaper aimed to quantitatively understand the role surface area and pore size distribution of the films affect the electro-chemistry and electro-mechanics. The films act like artificial muscles after exposure to the vapour of NH3 and Br2. In addition, the film with higher mechanical strength shows more response (bending) than the film with lower mechanical strength.