A review of recent advances in the stability, efficacy, and biosafety of black phosphorus-based drug delivery

Two-dimensional black phosphorus nanosheets (BPNSs) possess remarkable structures and properties, including a honeycomb-like wrinkled morphology and a tunable direct band gap. These attributes make BPNSs highly promising for biomedical applications, particularly in drug delivery. Nonetheless, employing BPNSs in drug delivery encounters challenges related to biosafety, stability, and efficiency—common hurdles faced by novel drug delivery systems (DDS). This review offers an inclusive perspective on very recent progress of BPNSs’ potential in drug delivery, emphasizing strategies to enhance their biosafety, stability, and efficiency. The surface passivation or modification could enhance the stability of BPNSs, but modified BPNSs-based DDS can potentially encounter challenges related to both biosafety and efficacy. The review offers a glimpse into these challenges. Finally, the present critical issues, challenges, and perspectives in terms of scaling-up of manufacturing processes, comprehending interactions between BPNSs and biological entities, and deciphering the fundamental mechanisms are covered here. An in-depth understanding of these aspects, especially the BPNSs-bio-interactions, is of great importance for the design and safety application of black phosphorus in future controlled drug release and disease treatment.