[ Asbestos-like Pathogenicity of Long Carbon Nanotubes Alleviated by Chemical Functionalization

摘要

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered one of the most popular types of nanomaterials and in the last few years have gained tremendous interest in a wide range of applications due to their unique physical, chemical, and electronic properties. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) consist of sheets of carbon atoms rolled up into multiple concentric hollow tubular structures. The lack of dispersibility of pristine MWNTs in most solvents is owing to strong inter-tube van der Waals forces and this has been an obstacle for their effective use in biological applications and material sciences (i.e. composites). This may be largely overcome by surface modification of the nanotube backbone, allowing application of CNTs in biomedical applications.