Two-Dimensional Materials Beyond Graphene: Emerging Opportunities for Biomedicine

Abstract

With the rise of graphene, there is growing attention on two-dimensional (2D) materials in the physical science community during the last decade. Most studies to date focus on the rich set of their superior electrical, optical, catalytic and electrochemical properties and highlight the encouraging opportunities for developing next generation electronics, optoelectronics, catalysis, and energy storage technologies. On the contrary, the biomedicine community has barely recognized the potential of these materials other than graphene. There are very limited published studies on these materials’ biological effects and biomedical applications. Here, we present a brief overview of 2D materials and discuss their potential for biomedical applications in hope of raising biomedical researchers’ awareness of the great opportunities associated with these materials. We first discuss the emergence of 2D materials and review two most important prerequisites for 2D materials’ biomedical applications, synthesis and biocompatibility. We then categorize the existing studies on 2D materials’ biomedical applications into biosensing, drug/gene delivery, antimicrobial, bioimaging and multimode therapeutic applications. We would put special emphasis on the great flexibility of various rational combinations of 2D material superior properties for the design and construction of assorted forms of reagents or devices with highly effective simultaneous diagnostic and therapeutic functions (or theranostics functions). At last, the newly emerging 2D black phosphorous with very rare and interesting properties is introduced as the next promising and important 2D materials to study in the upcoming years.