Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India.
Nanoscale. 2018 Sep 13;10(35):16365-16397. doi: 10.1039/c8nr04284e.
Nanosheets of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDs), the graphene-like two-dimensional (2D) materials, exhibit a unique combination of properties and have attracted enormous research interest for a wide range of applications including catalysis, functional electronics, solid lubrication, photovoltaics, energy materials and most recently in biomedical applications. Their potential for use in biosensors, drug delivery, multimodal imaging, antimicrobial agents and tissue engineering is being actively studied. However, the commercial translation of exfoliated TMDs has been limited due to the low aqueous solubility, non-uniformity, lack of control over the layer thickness, and the long-term colloidal stability of the exfoliated material. There is wide interest in the synthesis and exfoliation of TMDs resulting in the reporting of increasing numbers of new methods and their biomedical applications. The unique physicochemical characteristics of the TMD nanosheets have been exploited to tether them with biological payload to achieve selective localized delivery in vivo. The large surface-to-volume ratio, good cytocompatibility, ease of surface modification, tunable bandgap, strong spin-orbit coupling, and high optical and thermal conversion efficiency of TMD nanosheets make them favorable over traditional nanomaterials for biomedical research. Moreover, the presence of abundant active edge sites on the 2D TMDs makes them suitable for catalytic activities, while the large surface area and the interspace between layers are particularly conducive to ion or small molecule intercalation, making them useful for energy storage applications with rapid redox reaction capabilities. One of the major limitations of the exfoliated TMDs has been their limited colloidal stability in aqueous media. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in the exfoliation and synthesis of single-layered TMDs, their biomedical efficacy in terms of cytotoxicity, combinatorial therapy and diagnostic imaging, as well as antimicrobial activity. We highlight the current challenges in the field and propose strategies for the future.
过渡金属二硫属化物 (TMD) 的纳米片，即类似石墨烯的二维 (2D) 材料，具有独特的性能组合，在包括催化、功能电子、固体制动、光伏、能源材料以及最近的生物医学应用在内的广泛应用中引起了极大的研究兴趣。它们在生物传感器、药物输送、多模态成像、抗菌剂和组织工程中的应用潜力正在被积极研究。然而，由于剥离 TMD 的水溶性低、不均匀、无法控制层厚以及剥离材料的长期胶体稳定性，其在生物传感器中的商业转化受到限制。人们对 TMD 的合成和剥离产生了广泛的兴趣，导致越来越多的新方法及其生物医学应用被报道。TMD 纳米片的独特物理化学特性已被用于将其与生物有效载荷连接，以实现体内选择性局部递送。TMD 纳米片的大表面积与体积比、良好的细胞相容性、易于表面修饰、可调谐的能带隙、强自旋轨道耦合以及高光热转换效率，使它们比传统纳米材料更适合生物医学研究。此外，二维 TMD 上丰富的活性边缘位点使它们适合催化活性，而大的表面积和层间间隙特别有利于离子或小分子的嵌入，使它们在具有快速氧化还原反应能力的储能应用中非常有用。剥离 TMD 的主要限制之一是其在水介质中的胶体稳定性有限。在这篇综述中，我们总结了单层 TMD 的剥离和合成的最新进展，以及它们在细胞毒性、组合治疗和诊断成像以及抗菌活性方面的生物医学功效。我们强调了该领域当前的挑战，并提出了未来的策略。
