Skip to main content
. 2020 Dec 29;24(1):102001. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.102001

Table 5.

Promising CNT composite solutions for medical applications

CNT composites Type Medical application Species Major conclusions Reference
Functionalized

Heteroatoms (N, F, P/B) MWCNT Wound healing K. pneumoniae
P. aeruginosa
E. coli
B. subtilis
f-MWCNT showed 82.53%, 80.98%, 76.83%, and 77.41% biofilm inhibition against B. subtilis, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa, respectively (Murugesan et al., 2020)
Compounds displaying antimicrobial activity:

Surfactants

Sodium cholate SWCNT Antimicrobial agents E. coli
S. enterica
Antibacterial effect increased with increasing SWCNT concentration as demonstrated by the optical density reduction from 0.8 to 0.4 (Dong et al., 2012)

Photosensitizers

Rose Bengal (RB)
(APT)
MWCNT Antimicrobial agents E. coli RB-CNT-mediated photodestruction resulted in 5.46 log reduction for E. coli (Anju et al., 2018)
Malachite green (MG)
(APT)
MWCNT Medical devices P. aeruginosa
S. aureus
Upon MG-c-MWCNT treatment, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa viability was reduced by 5.16 and 5.55 log, respectively (Anju et al., 2019a)
Methylene blue (MB)
(APT)
MWCNT Medical devices E. coli
S. aureus
Photodynamic activation of MB-c-MWCNT resulted in 4.86 and 5.55 log reductions in E. coli and S. aureus viability, respectively (Parasuraman et al., 2019)
Toluidine blue (TB)
(APT)
MWCNT Medical devices P. aeruginosa
S. aureus
P. aeruginosa and S. aureus planktonic cells treated with TB-c-MWCNT and exposed to light irradiation reduced their viability by 4.91 and 5.47 log, respectively (Anju et al., 2019b)

Antimicrobial peptides

AMPs: TP359, TP226, and TP557 SWCNT Antimicrobial agents S. aureus Non-treated 3D skin showed 4 log CFU/g increase in 2 h after incubation with bacteria, whereas the f-SWCNT-s-Ag-treated skin showed only 1 log CFU/g increase in bacterial counts (Chaudhari et al., 2019)

Metals:

Silver nanoparticles-deposited f-CNT with an amphiphilic poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer
(MWCNTs-APPI-AgNPs)
MWCNT Drug delivery
Bioimaging
Medical devices
B. subtilis
E. coli
S. aureus
f-MWCNTs-AgNPs showed an inactivation percentage of 99.8% ± 0.2%, 99.7% ± 0.1%, and 93.1% ± 0.5%, for B. subtilis, S. aureus, and E. coli, respectively (Murugan and Vimala, 2011)
Silver sulfide quantum dots (Ag2S) MWCNT Antimicrobial surfaces E. coli
P. aeruginosa
S. aureus
The bacteria killing ability of f-MWCNT-Ag2S was 97.8% ± 2.1%, 78.5% ± 2.9%, and 55.7% ± 1.5% for E. coliP. aeruginosa, and S. aureus, respectively (Neelgund et al., 2012)
AgNP-decorated c-CNT MWCNT Nonspecified Methylobacterium spp.
Sphingomonas spp.
Ag-MWCNT (40 or 50 μg/mL) completely inhibited bacterial growth (Seo et al., 2014)
Silver and copper nanoparticles MWCNT Medical devices E. coli Ag-MWCNT and Cu-MWCNT exhibited 97% and 89% growth inhibition against E. coli, respectively (Mohan et al., 2011)
Copper nanoparticles MWCNT Nonspecified Gram-positive and -negative bacteria; Fungi Cu-MWCNT showed an enhanced inhibitory effect when compared with MWCNT (Yallappa et al., 2016)
Titanium oxide-gold (TiO2-Au) MWCNT Drug delivery A broad range of Gram-positive and -negative bacteria More than 90% biofilm inhibition was observed in the presence of TiO2-Au-MWCNT (Karthika et al., 2018)
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) MWCNT Antimicrobial agents E. coli
S. aureus
TiO2-MWCNT displayed high antimicrobial activity against both bacteria, as demonstrated by the diameter of inhibition zones (≥18 mm) (Sukkar et al., 2019)
Cadmium quantum dots (CdS) MWCNT Antimicrobial agents E. coli
P. aeruginosa
S. aureus
The bacteria-killing ability of f-MWCNT-CdS was 87.2% ± 4.1%, 68.9% ± 2.5%, and 46.7% ± 1.4% against E. coliP. aeruginosa, and S. aureus, respectively (Neelgund et al., 2012)

Polymers:

Amphiphilic poly(propyleneimine) 
Dendrimer (APPI)
MWCNT Drug delivery
Bioimaging
Medical devices
B. subtilis
E. coli
S. aureus
MWCNTs-APPI hybrid inhibited bacterial growth by 96.6% ± 0.3%, 96.5% ± 0.2%, and 87% ± 0.5% for B. subtilis, S. aureus, and E. coli, respectively (Murugan and Vimala, 2011)

Other compounds:

Antibodies to group A Streptococcus (GAS) MWCNT Antimicrobial agents Streptococcus pyogenes GAS-MWCNT induced 97%–100% killing of planktonic cells, depending on the time of laser exposure, and 99.99% killing of bacteria in biofilm (Levi-Polyachenko et al., 2014)
Pyrazole and pyrazolone derivates MWCNT Antimicrobial agents S. aureus
B. subtilis
E. coli
C. albicans
A. niger
The antibacterial activity of MWCNTs conjugated with pyrazole derivates ranged between 17.5% and 95.2% (Metwally et al., 2019)
Mannose derivates SWCNT Anti-adhesive agents Uropathogenic
E. coli
Mannose derivate-SWCNT induced a considerable reduction in the CFU (around 50%) when compared with the control (Romero-Ben et al., 2019)

APT, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy; AMP, antimicrobial peptide; MWCNT, multi-walled carbon nanotubes; SWCNT, single-walled carbon nanotubes; CFU, colony forming unit.