Carbon nanotube - A review on Synthesis, Properties and plethora of applications in the field of biomedical science Nigar Anzar a , Rahil Hasan a , Manshi Tyagi a , Neelam Yadav b , Jagriti Narang a, * a Department of Biotechnology, School of Chemical and Life Sciences, Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India b Department of Biotechnology, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, 124001, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Carbon nanotubes Biosensors Nanotechnology Drug targeting Antibacterial properties ABSTRACT Recent remarkable advances in the field of nanotechnology has been achieved in the last few years especially in the fabrication of sensors that have wide number of applications. Nanomaterials are the foundation of nano- technology that are measured on nanoscale. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are tube-like materials that are made up of carbon with a diameter calculating on a nanometer scale. They are originated from graphite sheet and these graphite layers seems similar to a rolled up non-stop unbreakable hexagonal like mesh structure and the carbon molecules appears at the apexes of the hexagonal structures. Depending upon the number of carbon layers, carbon nanotubes can be single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be fabricated by three main methods i.e., chemical vapor deposition, electric arc method and laser deposition method. Carbon nanotubes exhibit various characteristic properties such as high elasticity, high thermal conductivity, low density and they are chemically more inert etc. Due to these interesting properties, carbon nanotubes have played a significant role in the field of nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. Carbon nanotubes are being positively applied in drug delivery, sensing, water treatment etc. Functionalization of their surface can result in highly soluble materials, which can be further derivatized with active molecules, making them compatible with biological systems. Surface functionalization enables adsorption or attachment of various molecules or antigens, which subsequently can be targeted to the desired cell population for immune recognition or a therapeutic effect. In this review, properties of carbon nanotubes and their clinical applications such as medical diagnostics and drug delivery are being discussed. Here, antibacterial as well as antifungal activity of carbon nanotubes are also being reviewed. 1. Introduction Nanotechnology is a wide area of research and has been a latest and advanced manufacturing technology rising worldwide. It deals with a variety of materials produced at a nanometer scale through different chemical and physical methods [1]. Of increasing interest in the field of nanotechnology are the nanostructured materials, the foundation of nanotechnology. Nanomaterials have dimensions below 100 nm. This wide group of materials enables access to various new choices of mag- netic, electronic, mechanical or optical properties. Nanotubes belong to a promising group of nanomaterials. Though many other nanotubes based on boron as well as molybdenum have been stated widely but, currently carbon nanotubes are by far the most vital group. Carbon nanotubes contain one or several concentric graphite-like layers with diameters in the range of 0.4 nm up to tens of nanometers [2]. The field of carbon nanotubes was discovered by Iijima in the year 1991 by an early exper- imental observation of carbon nanotubes by TEM (Transmission electron microscopy) and the succeeding reports of conditions for the synthesis of large quantities of nanotubes [3]. Carbon nanotubes can be described as graphite sheets that are rolled * Corresponding author. Department of biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. E-mail address: jags_biotech@yahoo.co.in (J. Narang). Production and hosting by Elsevier Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sensors International journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/sensors-international https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sintl.2020.100003 Received 2 December 2019; Received in revised form 14 February 2020; Accepted 14 February 2020 Available online 19 February 2020 2666-3511/© 2020 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY- NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Sensors International 1 (2020) 100003