Soft chemical synthesis, characterization and interaction of ZnO graphene nanocomposite with bovine serum albumin protein

•Synthesized reduced graphene oxide-ZnO nanocomposite (ZG) from foam precursor•Confirmed ZG with bovine serum albumin interaction by electronic spectroscopies•The work can find several applications in biomedical fields.

Biofunctionalization of metal oxide nanoparticles (MONs) has enormous impact on biomedical fields. Therefore, the interaction of MONs with a protein must be understood before consideration of the material for a particular biomedical application. This is because the nanoparticles are always enclosed by a protein in biological fluid. In this report, we have studied to understand an interaction between zinc oxide-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite (ZG, synthesized by soft chemical process) with bovine serum albumin (BSA), a model protein having wide range of physiological functions. Initially, ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized by polyvinyl alcohol foam based precursor followed by coupling of the nanoparticles with in situ formed reduced graphene oxide (rGO) from as-synthesized graphene oxide in presence of hydrazine. The crystallinity and crystallite size of hexagonal ZnO has been analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis. In the samples, quasi spherical shaped ZnO/ZnO-rGO (ZG) nanoparticles was observed by field emission scanning and transmission electron microscopes while the FTIR and Raman spectral analyses have been carried out to reveal the existence of chemical interaction/complexation that existed between the oxygen functional groups of rGO and the inorganic moiety (ZnO/Zn2+) present in ZG nanocomposite. With the help of UV-visible and photoluminescence spectral studies, we have established an interaction of BSA protein with ZG nanocomposite. This work can find several applications in biomedical fields such as pharmacology, drug delivery and cell viability.

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