Abstract
Recent studies show that carbon nanotubes possess a potent antimicrobial activity against various pathogens, from bacteria to fungi and even protozoa. The current increase in drug-resistant pathogens, causing many infections, motivates the research in the carbon nanotube route to attack the microorganism drug-resistance. The molecular interaction between these nanomaterials and the microbes could provide the answers to elucidate the action’s mechanisms involved as antimicrobial agents. Carbon nanotubes exhibit unique properties that can be used as bio-targets to circumvent the microbial action or even eliminate them. Diverse research groups have implemented successful routes to discriminate and categorize these carbon nanomaterial’s effects on pathogenic organisms based on their physical or chemical properties. In this focused review, the advances on carbon nanotube’s antimicrobial activity based on their size, shape, and chemical surface are discussed. Furthermore, preliminary results on antimicrobial activity obtained by our research group are presented as examples of our advances in this field.
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de Jesús Barraza-García, F., Pérez-Miranda, S., Munguia-Lopez, J.G., Lopez-Urias, F., Muñoz-Sandoval, E. (2021). Carbon Nanotubes as Antimicrobial Agents: Trends and Perspectives. In: Abraham, J., Thomas, S., Kalarikkal, N. (eds) Handbook of Carbon Nanotubes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70614-6_47-1
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