Research Status and Prospect of Health Risk of Graphene

Graphene is an emerging two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial with remarkable electronic, optical and mechanical properties, and therefore has been applied extensively in the field of electronic device, composites and energy storage. Recently, as a result of its superb and unique properties, graphene has already become the competitive candidate in the field of biomedicine including biosensor, cell imaging, drug delivery and antibacterial nanomaterials, which has led to important breakthroughs in biomedical technology and brought great benefits to human health. However, as graphene creeps in our lives along with its versatile applications, its potential threat to the biosafety of human and other creatures has come to the fore and drawn worldwide attention. Therefore, in this work, the impacts caused by graphene on biobodies and the advances in the interactions between graphene and biobodies along with its mechanisms were reviewed. Then various types of biobarriers protecting human body from the negative effects induced by graphene were summarized. In the end, some important research directions concerning the health risk of graphene were pointed out and future challenges in health risk of graphene needing to be resolved were brought up.