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Surface Modification Of Carbon Structures For Biological Applications, Elizabeth Irene Maurer

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Carbon substrates have a wide variety of applications, many of which are enabled by appropriate surface modifications. In particular, the use of carbon-based substrates for biological devices can be quite advantageous due to their relative inertness and biocompatibility. Moreover, graphitic carbon can take many forms ranging from flat sheets to foams, fibers, and nanotubes. In this project, larger carbon substrates such as microcellular foam and flat graphite have been modified with carbon nanotubes, and their potential use in two types of biological applications was tested. The first study involved an investigation of the growth and proliferation of osteoblast cells on …