Carbon-based materials for photodynamic therapy: A mini-review

Abstract

Carbon-based materials have been extensively applied in photodynamic therapy owing to the unique optical characteristics, good biocompatibility and tunable systematic toxicity. This mini-review mainly focuses on the recent application of carbon-based materials including graphene, carbon nanotube, fullerene, corannulene, carbon dot and mesoporous carbon nanoparticle. The carbon-based materials can perform not only as photosensitizers, but also effective carriers for photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy, and its combined treatment.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

photodynamic therapy / carbon-based materials / graphene / carbon nanotube / fullerene / corannulene / carbon dot / mesoporous carbon nanoparticle

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the funding support from the National Basic Research Program of China (Granted No. 2015CB856500).

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