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. 2014 Jun 19;7(6):4669–4709. doi: 10.3390/ma7064669

Table 1.

Common nano- and biomaterials.

Type Examples Type of molecule/species Typical diameters a
Biological Antibodies Y-shaped proteins 10–15 nm
Aptamers artificial, single stranded polynucleotides 3–5 nm
DNA polynucleotides 3–50 nm
Enzymes globular proteins 6–40 nm
Cancer cells cells 10,000–40,000 nm
Inorganic Metal nanoparticles Ag, Au, Co, Cu, Fe, Ir, Ni, Pd 1–100 nm
Semicoductors quantum dots 2–20 nm
Nanowires SiO2, TiO2, Si, GaN, InP, In2O3, Au, Cu, Pt, Ni 1–50 nm
Organic Carbon nanospheres and capsules poly(divinyl)benzene, polyaniline, polypyrrole, polyacetylene 10 nm–1 μm
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) hollow carbon cylinders
SWCNT 1–2 nm
MWCNT 2–50 nm
Graphene sp2 hybridized carbon sheets with hexagonal honeycomb-shaped lattices

a These ranges of diameters are estimates based on assorted data in the literature.