Reinforcement of collagen with covalently-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotube crosslinkers

Poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and free PEI were investigated as collagen crosslinking agents to determine their ability to improve the Young's modulus of a collagen hydrogel. The crosslinked collagen matrices were prepared by blending Type I bovine collagen with either PEI-SWNT or free PEI and crosslinked utilizing carbodiimide chemistry. The resulting SWNT enriched material was a crosslinked …