Introduction to Carbon Structures

This chapter traces the development of carbon nanomaterials in order to explore their molecular structures and intrinsic properties, which have shown great potential to many innovate practices and applications both in research and as commercial products. Carbon nanomaterials have four major allotropes for biomedical applications: carbon nanotube (CNT), graphene (GR), nanodiamond (ND), and fullerene; all consisting of only carbon atoms, of which each has its own unique three-dimensional nanostructure. Fullerene is formed in a hollow cage made out of only carbon atoms with each carbon connected to three immediate neighbors in a small ring configuration, which consists of either five or six members, pentagonal, and hexagonal, respectively. The structure of graphene is referred to as infinite polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) containing an infinite number of benzene rings fused together. A carbon dot is a quasi-spherical carbon nanoparticle with high oxygen content.

References

Wang, Y., Wang, X.C., and Antonietti, M. (2012). Polymeric graphitic carbon nitride as a heterogeneous organocatalyst: from photochemistry to multipurpose catalysis to sustainable chemistry. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51: 68–89.
10.1002/anie.201101182
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Anastas, P.T. and Kirchhoff, M.M. (2002). Origins, current status, and future challenges of green chemistry. Acc. Chem. Res. 35: 686–694.
10.1021/ar010065m
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Corma, A. and Garcia, H. (2003). Lewis acids: from conventional homogeneous to green homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Chem. Rev. 103: 4307–4365.
10.1021/cr030680z
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Diederich, F. and Whetten, R.L. (1992). Beyond C60: the higher fullerenes. Acc. Chem. Res. 25: 119–126.
10.1021/ar00015a004
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar
Hebard, A.F., Rosseinsky, M.J., Haddon, R.C. et al. (1991). Superconductivity of 18K in potassium-doped C60. Nature 350: 600.
10.1038/350600a0
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar
Iijima, S. (1991). Helical microtubes of graphitic carbon. Nature 354: 56–58.
10.1038/354056a0
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar
Iijima, S. and Ichihashi, T. (1993). Single shell nanotubes of 1-nm diameter. Nature 363: 603–605.
10.1038/363603a0
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar
Bethune, D.S., Kiang, C.H., Devries, M.S. et al. (1993). Cobalt-catalyzed growth of carbon nanotubes with single-atomic-layerwalls. Nature 363: 605–607.
10.1038/363605a0
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar
Georgakilas, V., Perman, J.A., Tucek, J. et al. (2015). Broad family of carbon nanoallotropes: classification, chemistry, and applications of fullerenes, carbon dots, nanotubes, graphene, nanodiamonds, and combined superstructures. Chem. Rev. 15: 4774–4822.
Google Scholar
Charlier, J.-C. (2002). Defects in carbon nanotubes. Acc. Chem. Res. 35: 1063–1069.
10.1021/ar010166k
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Sloan, J., Kirkland, A.I., Hutchison, J.L. et al. (2002). Structural characterization of atomically regulated nanocrystals formed within single-walled carbon nanotubes using electron microscopy. Acc. Chem. Res 35: 1054–1062.
10.1021/ar010169x
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Joachim, C., Gimzewski, J.K., and Aviram, A. (2000). Electronics using hybrid-molecular and mono-molecular devices. Science 408: 541–548.
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Avouris, P. (2002). Molecular electronics with carbon nanotubes. Acc. Chem. Res. 35: 1026–1034.
10.1021/ar010152e
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Carlson, L.J. and Krauss, T.D. (2008). Photophysics of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes. Acc. Chem. Res. 41: 235–243.
10.1021/ar700136v
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Frank, S., Poncharal, P., Wang, Z.L. et al. (1998). Carbon nanotube quantum resistors. Science 280: 1744–1746.
10.1126/science.280.5370.1744
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Novoselov, K.S., Geim, A.K., Morozov, S.V. et al. (2004). Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 306: 666–669.
10.1126/science.1102896
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Sun, Z., Kohama, S.-I., Zhang, Z. et al. (2010). Soluble graphene through edge-selected functionalization. Nano Res. 3: 117–125.
10.1007/s12274-010-1016-2
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar
Savage, N. (2012). Super carbon. Nature 483: 530–531.
Google Scholar
Geim, A.K. and Novoselov, K.S. (2007). The rise of graphene. Nat. Mat. 6: 183–191.
10.1038/nmat1849
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Fujii, S. and Enkoi, T. (2013). Nanographene and graphene edges: electronic structure and nanofabrication. Acc. Chem. Res. 46: 202–2210.
Google Scholar
Vaijayanthimala, V., Cheng, P.-Y., Yeh, S.-H. et al. (2012). The long-term stability and biocompatibility of fluorescent nanodiamond as an in vivo contrast agent. Biomaterials 33: 7794–7802.
10.1016/j.biomaterials.2012.06.084
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Hsiao, W.W.-W., Hui, Y.Y., Tsai, P.-C. et al. (2016). Fluorescent nanodiamond: a versatile tool for long-term cell tracking, super-resolution imaging, and nanoscale temperature sensing. Acc. Chem. Res. 49: 400–407.
10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00484
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
Hola, K., Zhang, Y., Wang, Y. et al. (2014). Carbon dots—emerging light emitters for bioimaging, cancer therapy and optoelectronics. Nano Today 9 (5): 590–603.
10.1016/j.nantod.2014.09.004
CAS Web of Science® Google Scholar

Carbon Nanomaterials for Bioimaging, Bioanalysis, and Therapy