Table 4.

Information about the toxicity of graphene and its derivatives

Graphene family nanomaterials	Dimension	Animals	Dose and time of incubation	Effects	References
GO	Thickness of 0.93 nm Size of 150–250 nm	Sprague–Dawley rats	0.5 or 4 mg m−3, inhalation exposure, single 6 h	The single inhalation exposure to GO induce minimal toxic responses in rat lungs	Han et al. [331]
GO	Thickness < 4 nm Size 237.9 ± 79.3 nm; and size 54.9 ± 23.1 nm	Male and female ICR-strain mice	24 mg kg−1, tail vein injected, 5 days	Did not affect pup numbers, sex ratio, weights, pup survival rates or pup growth, low toxicity for male reproduction	Liang et al. [332]
GO	Size of 1110 to 16 200 nm	C57BL/6 J mice	2 or 20 mg kg−1, subcutaneous and intraperitoneal injection	Both GO and a reduction of GO result in immune cell infiltration, uptake, and clearance	Sydlik et al. [333]
rGO	Sizes of small rGO: 87.97 ± 30.83, Sizes of large rGO:472.08 ± 249.17 nm	Male C57black/6 mice	60 mg kg−1, oral gavage, 5 days	RGO affected general locomotor activity, balance, and neuromuscular coordination, but showed little change in exploratory, anxiety-like, or learning and memory behaviors	Yang et al. [334]
GQDs	Thickness of GO, GQD: 0.5–1 nm Sizes of GO, GQD: 3–5 nm	Balb/c mice	20 mg kg−1 intravenous injection or intraperitoneal injection 14 days	GO appeared toxic and caused death GQD revealed no accumulation in organs and caused low cytotoxicity	Chong et al. [287]