Spectroscopic characterisation and in vitro behaviour of kaolinite polyvinyl alcohol nanocomposite

Inorganic–organic hybrid materials like clay polymer nanocomposites (CPN) are a topic of increasing interest due to their implications in a broad range of applications including tissue engineering scaffolds and drug delivery systems. Our study is focused on CPN developed from polyvinyl alcohol and medical kaolinitic clay prepared by solution intercalation and mechanical mixing methods and characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. Both components and nanocomposite materials were tested in simulated body fluid enriched with serum albumin for the assessment of the first biological response at the interface with entities of the living tissues. The protein attachment on the material surface was primarily revealed by N 1s photoelectron peak related to the protein amino groups. For both CPN the FTIR spectra evidenced characteristic absorption bands of amides I and II of the protein.