Carbon Nanotubes for Cancer Photothermal Therapy

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been used for drug delivery, bioimaging, and cancer photothermal therapy (PTT) due to their unique physico-chemical properties. Compared with commonly used photothermal agents such as gold nanorods, CNTs exhibit high photothermal conversion efficiency and stable structure after repeated laser irradiation. CNTs also possess high drug-loading capacity. In this chapter, the structures of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), the photothermal conversion of near-infrared laser-triggered SWCNTs and MWCNTs, as well as CNTs-mediated cancer PTT were summarized. The biosafety of CNTs was also discussed.