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.