Corrosion of metal in biomedical devices, such as metal joint replacements, could cause serious health problems to patients. Currently ceramics coating materials used in metal implants are able to reduce corrosion to some extent with limitations. In this paper, we proposed graphene as a biocompatible protective film for metal surface potentially for biomedical applications. We confirmed that graphene film effectively inhibits Cu surface from corrosion in biologically relevant aqueous environment, phosphate buffered saline and cell medium. We demonstrated effective inhibition of corrosion by graphene coating in vitro. Cell viability tests with presence of single layer and bilayer graphene coated Cu surface suggested graphene greatly eliminates the toxicity of metal surface by inhibiting corrosion and reducing the concentration of Cu ions produced. To address the durability of graphene protection limited by the defects in graphene film, we demonstrated that thiol derivatives assembled on graphene coated Cu surface can enhance the protection, resulting in twice higher cell viability compared to graphene without thiol functionalization. In addition, transferred monolayer graphene was also tested as a protective layer on Cu foil surface. Our results open up the potential for using graphene coating to protect metals in biological system.

Graphene: A biocompatible protection film in biological environment

246th National Meeting (2013)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.