Functionalized carbon nanostructures for medical diagnosis

Regarding advanced materials application in medical approaches of diagnosis and treatment, the majority of 0D to 3D carbon nanostructures have appeared efficiently functional due to their specific physiochemical features. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon quantum dots (CQDs), and graphene-based structures (graphene, graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and graphene quantum dots (GQDs)) can be enumerated as the most well-known members of the carbon family applied for detection and monitoring of disease-relevant biological components through biosensing and bioimaging as two main pathways. Due to the specific optical and physical properties of these nanostructures, the capability of fluorescence, Raman, and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is related to band-gap fluorescence, resonance Raman scattering, strong radiation absorbance, and photoacoustic signals, respectively. Moreover, engineered functionalization of carbon-based nanostructures provides aspects that lead to production of other biomedical imaging probes such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nucleus imaging (NI), and positron emission tomography (PET) applications. In addition to mentioned bioimaging functionalities of carbon nanostructures, chemical stability, remarkable electrical properties, vast functionalization potential, and modified biocompatibility result in biosensors designed with high sensitivity and efficient energy utilization for detection of antibodies, enzymes, proteins, nucleic acid, and cells. This chapter presents recent progress in medical diagnosis approaches assisting carbon nanostructures and their functionalized modification mainly based on bioimaging and biosensing.