Graphene and Graphene-Based Nanomaterials Current Applications and Future Perspectives

Soon after the discovery in 2004, graphene gained a lot of attention in the scientific community and, thus, has been broadly investigated due to its unique features and immense applications in the field of nanomedicine, bioimaging, biosensors, drug delivery, biomedical application, and pharmaceuticals. Graphene is a single-layered, two-dimensional carbon molecule having hexagonal packed structure arranged in a honeycomb cross-section manner. Graphene and its derivatives such as graphene oxide (GO), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), and monolayer and bilayer graphene are vastly investigated for their scientific applications. Among different applications to date, graphene was successfully used for the first time as a drug delivery vehicle for cancer chemotherapy in 2008. Since then, graphene and graphene-based nanomaterials were massively studied for their applications in drug and gene delivery, cancer treatment, and its diagnosis owing to their unique physicochemical properties. This chapter explores the basic knowledge about the history, chemistry, and types of graphene with a spotlight on the preparation, characterization, and functionalization of graphene oxide nanoparticles. Moreover, due to the ample use of graphene oxide nanomaterials in the biomedical field, we also discuss its applications in cancer therapy and cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, this chapter also highlights the future perspectives of graphene and graphene-based materials.