随着纳米技术的飞速发展,纳米材料已成为一种新型材料。纳米材料具有独特的物理化学性质,如小尺寸效应、巨大比表面积、极高的反应活性、量子效应等,这些特性使纳米科学成为当今世界三大支柱科学之一。碳纳米材料是纳米材料领域重要的组成部分,主要包括碳纳米管、富勒烯、石墨烯、纳米钻石及其衍生物等。由于其独特的理化特性,它们在生物医学领域具有广泛的应用前景。另外,随着碳纳米材料的产业化,各种形式的碳纳米材料将以不同途径进入人们的生活,纳米材料的生物安全性问题正受到世界各国科学家的广泛关注。本文综述了这四类碳纳米材料在组织工程、药物/基因载体、生物成像、肿瘤治疗、抗病毒/抗菌、生物传感等生物医学领域的应用现状以及存在的生物安全问题,最后,讨论了该领域未来的研究内容和方向以及亟待研究的重要问题。
Nanomaterials have become a new type of materials with a rapid development of nanotechnology. Nanomaterials have unique physical and chemical properties such as small size effect, large surface area, high reactivity, and quantum effects. These features make the nanoscience as one of the three pillars of the world science. Carbon-based nanomaterials are an important part of nanomaterials, they include carbon nanotubes, fullerene, graphene, nanodiamond and their derivatives. Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, carbon-based nanomaterials have broad applications in the biomedical field. In addition, with the industrialization of nanotechnology, various forms of carbon-based nanomaterials have come into human life in different ways, and the biosafety is increasingly attracting attention of scientists around the world. This article reviews the potential applications of all four types of carbon-based nanomaterials in the biomedical field including tissue engineering, drug/gene carrier, biological imaging, cancer treatment, anti-HIV/anti-bacterial activity, and biological sensing. In addition, the biosafety issue is also reviewed. Finally, we discuss the need for future research. Specifically, weidentify the most important research topics, which urgently need to be studied.