Graphene‐Based Nano Materials: Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Graphene is a single layered two‐dimensional structure of graphite and it has been a flaming topic of research due to its remarkable properties. The efficiency of graphene‐based materials is exploited in many spheres of life ranging from biosensing, targeted drug delivery, bio‐imaging, quantum physics, transportation, energy storage devices, faster electronics, and many more. Graphene is made of a monolayer of sp2 carbon atoms organized in a hexagonal pattern with a C−C bond length of 1.42 A. Graphene has attracted interest in the development of electrochemical sensors and biosensors due to its excellent electrical conductivity, significant surface area, and high electron transfer potential. Because of these exclusive characteristics, it has also become a suitable contender for extensive biomedical uses that favors the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) into bone cells and inhibit proliferation of cells, fluorescence quenching, drug/gene delivery, tissue engineering and antitumor treatments. In last ten years, notable research has been conducted to explore its biomedical applications. Encouraged by its numerous successful integrations into the biomedical fields, the up‐to‐date developments of graphene applications in various dimensions of biomedical field such as biosensors, gene and drug delivery, photo‐thermal therapy, bio‐imaging and tissue engineering are summarized here.