Potential applications of Graphene for antibacterial treatment

Graphene, an exceptional single atom thick two dimensional nanomaterial with unique structural,electronic, and mechanical properties, has attracted a tremendous interest of researchers in many fields including biomedical applications, which concurrently raises disquieting questions, and a consequent growing concern about their potential toxicity to human and animal cells. In this article, a summary of some very recent studies is presented by describing the behavior of graphene and its derivatives both in vivo and in vitro as well as the potential mechanismsof toxicity proposed to explain this behavior. The bacterial toxicity of graphene and its derivatives is also reviewed suggesting their possible usage for antibacterial treatment. Moreover, this article reviewed the effect of functionalization of graphene on mitigating its toxicity which hold the promise of using these materials for in vivo applications. Further work aiming to examine the effects of structural and chemical variations of graphene based materials which result from processing and synthesis techniques on different living systems are needed for a better understanding of toxicity/biocompatibility of these materials.