Nanostructures: General information. The use of nanoobjects in medicine and cosmetology

Abstract

The general tendency towards the miniaturization of technological systems and materials has prompted intensive development of nanotechnology. It is a quickly developing area of science devoted to the production and application of nanomaterial structures defined as those whose one size does not exceed 100 nm. Nanostructures have been found to show new physical, chemical and biological properties often better than the corresponding materials made of particles of micrometric or macrometric sizes, so they have become of great interest in many areas of industry as well as other areas [22], such as medicine and cosmetology. According to literature and Scopus database, Fig. 1, the most popular nanostructures used in medicine and cosmetology, besides silver and gold nanoparticles, are those of other transition metals such as platinum, palladium or ruthenium. This paper is concerned with the wide range of present and potential applications of nanomaterials in medicine and cosmetology.