Research Initiation Award: Toward Bionanoscience - Binding of Amino Acids with Graphene and N-doped Graphene

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The Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) Research Initiation Awards (RIAs) provide support to STEM junior faculty at HBCUs who are starting to build a research program, as well as for mid-career faculty who may have returned to the faculty ranks after holding an administrative post or who needs to redirect and rebuild a research program. Faculty members may pursue research at their home institution, at an NSF-funded Center, at a research intensive institution or at a national laboratory. The RIA projects are expected to help further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, to improve research and teaching at his or her home institution, and to involve undergraduate students in research experiences. With support from the National Science Foundation, Clark Atlanta University (CAU) will conduct research aimed at understanding the binding properties of graphene and nitrogen-doped (N-doped) graphene with amino acids that may be useful for the development of biosensors. This project will be used to enhance teaching and learning at CAU and thus, help to prepare the next-generation of underrepresented African American undergraduate students by training them in the research area of Bionanoscience at CAU. The research and educational efforts will contribute to the University's goal to increase research related to computational sciences and to increase student engagement with faculty outside of the classroom through undergraduate research. In addition, the combined research training and education for the CAU students will result in graduates that are well-prepared to manage graduate school and well-qualified to compete in a diverse workforce.The goal of the proposed study is to investigate the binding of all twenty naturally occurring amino acids (AAs) with graphene at gas phase and aqueous medium using quantum chemical calculations. The computations will be extended to examine the binding of AAs with nitrogen doped (N-doped) graphene to gain insight on the effect and the type of N-doping in graphene. The specific aims of this project are to: (1) obtain a fundamental understanding of the binding of amino acids (AAs) with graphene and N-doped graphene through computational investigations in gas phase and aqueous medium; (2) compare the computed results with the experimental data; and (3) prepare the next-generation of underrepresented African American undergraduate students by training them in the research area of Bionanoscience at CAU. The findings from this study will provide significant knowledge that will be useful for the development of biosensors and drug delivery applications using graphene-based nanomaterials. In addition, the proposed research will enhance our current knowledge on how to engineer graphene for biological applications. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Jackson State University.