The formation of bio-corona on graphene and boron nitride

The increase in applications of engineered two-dimensional (2D) materials has raised concerns over their discharge into the environment. The inadvertent fouling of 2D-materials with natural organic matter (NOM) results in the formation of biocorona, which in turn determines the transport and fate of 2D-materials. Our experiments showed that the physicochemical characteristics of 2D-materials play an important role in biocorna formation. In particular, the formation of biocorona is determined by: i) the amount of aromatic content in NOM, and ii) the distribution of pi-electrons in 2D-materials such as graphene and BN. More importantly, we found that the delocalized pi-electron cloud in NOM results in significant charge transfer while while the charge transfer does not occur for the case of BN wherein the electron cloud is centered near N atoms. A detailed analysis of 2D-material biocorona formation and the impacts on 2D-material transport and fate will be presented.