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Bioinspired Phenolic Compounds For Biomedical Devices, Zhen Tian

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I investigated the metal-chelating ability and redox activity of phenoliccompounds from different sources for biomedical applications. Eumelanins are the naturally occurring biopigments that can be found in skin, hair, eyes, or brain of many living organisms. Various functional groups in eumelanin permit it to binding metal ions via comproportionation reaction. I investigated the structure-property relationship of eumelanin by X-ray scattering and electrochemical techniques. I reported the mesoscale structure of eumelanins and its impact on the charge transport. X-ray scattering suggests that eumelanin pigments exhibit the semi-crystalline structure with ordered d-spacings. These unique mesoscale structures further influence the …