Nanocarbons for Biology and Medicine: Sensing, Imaging, and Drug Delivery

Nanocarbons with different dimensions (e.g., 0D fullerenes and carbon nanodots, 1D carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoribbons, 2D graphene and graphene oxides, and 3D nanodiamonds) have attracted enormous interest for applications ranging from electronics, optoelectronics, and photovoltaics to sensing, bioimaging, and therapeutics due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Among them, nanocarbon-based theranostics (i.e., therapeutics and diagnostics) is one of the most intensively studied applications, as these nanocarbon materials serve as excellent biosensors, versatile drug/gene carriers for specific targeting in vivo, effective photothermal nanoagents for cancer therapy, and promising fluorescent nanolabels for cell and tissue imaging. This review provides a systematic overview of the latest theranostic applications of nanocarbon materials with a comprehensive comparison of the characteristics of different nanocarbon materials and their influences on theranostic applications. We first introd...