Adsorption of proteins on carbon-based materials. Review

The adsorption of proteins on carbon-based materials is a complex and multifaceted process critical to applications in biotechnology, medicine, environmental science, and materials engineering. This review comprehensively examines the physicochemical mechanisms governing protein adsorption onto various carbon materials, including activated carbon, graphene, and graphene oxide. Emphasis is placed on the surface properties such as porosity, surface chemistry, wettability, and electric charge, as well as protein characteristics including size, structure, charge, and conformational dynamics. The influence of environmental factors – pH, ionic strength, and protein concentration – on adsorption behavior and protein layer formation is discussed. Special attention is given to the role of oxygen-containing functional groups on carbon surfaces and their impact on electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions. An overview of the analytical techniques used to study adsorption, including atomic force microscopy (AFM), circular dichroism (CD), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), and spectroscopic methods is also provided. The review describes the role of protein adsorption onto carbon-based materials for their biomedical applications, namely, for implant biocompatibility and development of biosensors. Finally, a rapid growth in the number of works studying sorption on graphene oxide in recent years, as well as an increasing interest in its use for sensor development is highlighted.