Nanodiamonds and their surface modification strategies for drug delivery applications

Abstract

Nanodiamonds (NDs) have excellent mechanical, chemical and biological properties with many advantages like good biocompatibility, tailorable surface chemistry, and low cytotoxicity that makes them as most desired candidates for the drug delivery applications compared with other carbon materials including fullerenes, carbon black, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphenes. Since NDs are distinctive among other carbon nanomaterials, they are recognized and considered as the most potential nanomaterials for technological and biomedical applications. Surface modifications are known to be one of the active methods to enhance or fine tune their properties. Thus, surface modified NDs could assist to adsorb or conjugate various drug molecules, target ligands and nucleic acids for drug delivery applications. This review focuses on the NDs synthesis and surface modifications of NDs and their recent applications in the field of drug delivery. Eventually, the review is summarized with a brief conclusion and future prospects in this field.