Interaction of collagen with polypyrrole in the production of hybrid materials

A series of collagen–polypyrrole hybrid materials have been synthesized by the chemical polymerization of pyrrole using FeCl 3 as initiator in the presence of soluble collagen. The black color of the resulting materials indicates the presence of polypyrrole while collagen was verified by amino acid analysis of the hybrids. Collagen incorporation into the hybrid was found to be a function of pyrrole concentration used in the polymerization. When the concentrationof pyrrole was high, the collagen loading was low and vice versa. This inverse relationship was also found in the hybrids' electrical conductivity. A 26% collagen content in the hybrid gave a conductivity of 1.4 S cm −1 while a 4% collagen gave a higher value of 62.4 S cm −1 . Thermogravimetric data suggest that the two polymers exist in the hybrid as a blend. The nature of the interaction of the components in the hybrid is believed to be strong since collagen could not be extracted despite denaturation with sodium dodecylsulfate.