Pharmaceutical characterization of solid and dispersed carbon nanotubes as nanoexcipients

Citation: Marina V Ivanova,1 Constanze Lamprecht,1 M Jimena Loureiro,1 J Torin Huzil,1,2 and Marianna Foldvari1, International Journal of Nanomedicine 2012, 7, 4030-0415 .

Summary: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are novel materials with considerable potential in many areas related to nanomedicine. However, a major limitation in the development of CNT-based therapeutic nanomaterials is a lack of reliable and reproducible data describing their chemical and structural composition. Knowledge of properties including purity, structural quality, dispersion state, and concentration are essential before CNTs see widespread use in in vitro and in vivo experiments. In this work, we describe the characterization of several commercially available and two in-house-produced CNT samples and discuss the physicochemical profiles that will support their use in nanomedicine.