CARBON NANOTUBES: A REVIEW ON PROPERTIES, PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATIONS

Abhijeet A. Chaudhari*, Rutuja P. Sawant, Nilofar A. Khan and Kirteebala P. Pawar

ABSTRACT

Carbon nanotubes one of the unique one-dimensional nanomaterials offer an alternative and promising platform of drug delivery system due to their distinct physicochemical properties. Because of their specific characters, versatile functionalization chemistry, and biological compatibility Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have gained great attention in past few decades. There are excellent properties such as optical, electrical, magnetic, thermal, chemical, and mechanical in Carbon nanotubes. A lot of attention has been drawn by Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) due to their physical properties and tuneable morphologies. Carbon nanotubes are useful for cancer therapy due to their unique properties such as drug loading, thermal ablation, and cellular uptake. An ideal carrier for targeted drug delivery systems should have capability for targeting the drug at the specific site. The transporting capabilities of carbon nanotubes with appropriate surface modifications and physicochemical properties show great effect as the targeted drug delivery. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been introduced as a novel carrier system for both small and large therapeutic molecules. This review will discuss its synthesis, drug loading, the therapeutic applications of CNTs and many other aspects.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, buckytubes, fullerenes, functionalization.