Biomedical applications of carbon-based nanomaterials

Abstract

Nanomaterials are the solid colloidal particles in size ranging from 1 to 100 nm. Nanomaterials provide novel physicochemical properties with the increased surface to volume ratio from their bulk particles. Over the last two decades, several nanomaterials have been engineered precisely for their applications in diagnosis, targeted drug delivery, bio-imaging, biosensors, and also in therapeutics. Since the discovery of carbon allotropes, carbon-based nanomaterials have become important in the field of biomedicine due to their unique physio-chemical properties, high mechanical strength, and optical properties. In this chapter, carbon-based nanomaterials such as Nanodiamonds (NDs), Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), Buckminsterfullerene (C60), Carbon quantum dots (CQDs), Carbon nanohorns (CNs) and its biomedical applications are described briefly. These nanoparticles allow the diagnosis and detection at the molecular scale with the addition of fluorescent probes. They provide more specificity and sensitivity in bio-imaging in drug delivery and cancer treatment.