Graphene and functionalized graphene: Extraordinary prospects for nanobiocomposite materials

Graphene research, already prized, is nonetheless challenged to provide material advantages that bring about unique and novel applications rather than simply an improved substitute to existing materials. Arguably driving significant progress are new approaches to its manufacture including combination with other atoms and nanobiocomposite materials that introduce new functional properties. Functionalized graphene can interface with biomolecules to provide new health sector benefits in the form of highly sensitive biosensors that may offer continuous label-free measurement of key bioactive cell molecules, innovative nanoparticles for tissue targeted drug delivery and scaffolds for tissue engineering with previously unachievable qualities favouring tissue integration and biocompatibility. We here describe graphene functionalization methods and provide recent examples of how graphene can be used to achieve biological interactions with innovative outcomes. Above all, these laboratory focused advances each contribute to an incrementally improved understanding of how different forms of graphene and its derivatives can best be tailored to meet biological demands. Much has yet to be discovered with regard to safety profiles and improved manufacture yet considering how carefully derived rational insights might be combined with computational biology to accelerate complex performance models, prospects that graphene-based biomaterials can achieve extraordinary real-world benefits are optimistically poised. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.