Green synthesis of peptide-based hydrogel-silver nanoparticles hybrid and their biological applications

Peptide-based hydrogels have attracted increasing attention for biological applications and diagnostic research due to their impressive features including biocompatibility and biodegradability, injectability, mechanical stability, high water absorption capacity, and tissue like elasticity. The aim of this research is to synthesize peptide-based hydrogels and impregnate them with in situ prepared metal and metal oxide nanoparticles to have the resultant hydrogel/nanoparticles hybrid. The amino acids, Fmoc-Phe and diphenylalanine Phe2 are used for the hydrogel synthesis and nanoparticles can be selected from Ag, and Fe3O4 which have a paramount importance in nanobiotechnology. Green chemical methods will be applied for the synthesis of hydrogel and nanoparticles. Regarding the biological applications, the hydrogel/nanoparticles hybrid can be used in the fields of antibacterials and drug delivery materials. Structure and morphology of this nanohybrid are characterized with different techniques such as FESEM, FTIR-ATR, UV-Vis, DLS, ζ-potential, NMR, and XPS.