Engineering carbon nanotube-collagen nanocomposite material for vascular grafts

Failure of vascular grafts is often associated with high stiffness and bioinertness of current grafts, the majority of which are made of polytetrafluorylene. A biomimetic matrix that possess tunable mechanical properties and is biological compatible may have many advantages over polytetrafluorylene materials. The present study is to create and characterize biomimetic nanocomposites that might ultimately provide improved performances when used for vascular grafts. We have designed nanocomposites using functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNT) and collagen nanofibers, and developed binding and mixing strategies to engineer the nanointerface. The structural, mechanical and biological properties of the resultant nanocomposite materials were characterized.