Abstract: Single-walled carbon nanotube(SWNT) was functionalized with N-n-octadecyl-D-maltonamide(NOMA), a simple sugar-containing amphipathic compound, by a method of noncovalent adsorption to form a NOMA-SWNT nanocomposite. The spectroscopic and morphology results show that NOMA could be rapidly and effectively adsorbed on the surface of SWNT without changing the native structure of NOMA and the structure properties of SWNT. Moreover, it was shown that the dispersion ability of SWNT in aqueous solution had a significant improvement after coating with NOMA. Field effect transistor(FET) devices with a NOMA-SWNT bundle as the conducting channel have been developed to detect maltose-Concanavalin A(Con A) interaction. Obvious changes in the Carbon nanotube field effect transistor(CNTFET) characteristics have been detected after NOMA functionalization and after Con A adsorption to the NOMA coating layer, which demenstrates the possobility of noncovalent glycosylated functionalization of SWNTs with simple molecue NOMA and sugar-lectin recognition detection by CNTFET. The presented method for functionalization of SWNT had several advantages, such as rapid and facile CNT functionalization, good hydrophilicity and biocompatibility, versatile detection of receptor via various glycoligand molecule, etc., and could be used for bio-functionalized materials, detection of carbohydrate-protein interactions and diagnose processes of deleterious disease.

Key words: SWNT, Glycosylated, NOMA-SWNT nanocomposite, Carbon nanotube field effect transistor(CNTFET), Sugar-lectin recognition