la9b01685_si_001.pdf (205.8 kB)
Electron Transport in Muscle Protein Collagen
journal contribution
posted on 2019-08-27, 13:36 authored by Jayeeta Kolay, Sudipta Bera, Rupa MukhopadhyayIn recent times,
collagen, which is one of the most abundant proteins
in animals, has appeared to be an attractive candidate for biomaterial
applications, for example, in medical implants and wearable electronics.
This is because collagen is water-insoluble, biocompatible, and nontoxic.
In addition, films of different sizes and shapes can be made using
this protein as it is malleable and elastic in nature. However, its
electron transport capacity or its absence has remained largely untested
so far. Therefore, in this work, the electron transport behavior of
collagen has been studied
in both film and single-fiber states in a local probe configuration
using current-sensing atomic force spectroscopy (CSAFS). From the
CSAFS analyses, the electronic (transport) band gap of collagen has
been estimated. It has been found that collagen behaves as a wide
band gap semiconductor (near-insulating) in a variety of experimental
conditions. The transition to a semiconducting material with a low
electronic band gap and a nearly 1000-fold enhancement of current
(picoampere to nanoampere level) occurs by metal ion treatment (here,
Fe3+) of the native collagen. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the first report of a molecular level study of the electron
transport behavior of collagen proteins and estimation of transport
band gap values of collagen and metalated collagen.