Carbon nanotube based biomedical agents for heating, temperature sensoring and drug delivery

摘要

Due to their extraordinary physical and chemical properties carbon nanotubesreveal a promising potential as biomedical agents for heating, temperaturesensoring and drug delivery on the cellular level. Filling carbon nanotubeswith tailored materials realises nanoscaled containers in which the activecontent is encapsulated by a protecting carbon shell. We describe differentsynthesis routes and show the structural and magnetic properties of carbonnanotubes. In particular, the filling with magnetic materials offers thepotential for hyperthermia applications while the insertion of NMR activesubstances allows the usage as markers and sensors. The potential of carbonnanotubes for biomedical applications is highlighted by hyperthermia studieswhich prove their applicability for local in-situ heating. In addition we haveshown that a non-invasive temperature control by virtue of a carbon-wrappednanoscaled thermometer and filling with anti-cancer drugs is possible.