Advances of MXenes; Perspectives on Biomedical Research

Abstract

The last decade witnessed the emergence of a new family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides named MXenes, which quickly gained momentum due to their exceptional electrical, mechanical, optical, and tunable functionalities. These outstanding properties also rendered them attractive materials for biomedical and biosensing applications, including drug delivery systems, antimicrobial applications, tissue engineering, sensor probes, auxiliary agents for photothermal therapy and hyperthermia applications, etc. The hydrophilic nature of MXenes with rich surface functional groups is advantageous for biomedical applications over hydrophobic nanoparticles that may require complicated surface modifications. As an emerging 2D material with numerous phases and endless possible combinations with other 2D materials, 1D materials, nanoparticles, macromolecules, polymers, etc., MXenes opened a vast terra incognita for diverse biomedical applications. Recently, MXene research picked up the pace and resulted in a flood of literature reports with significant advancements in the biomedical field. In this context, this review will discuss the recent advancements, design principles, and working mechanisms of some interesting MXene-based biomedical applications. It also includes major progress, as well as key challenges of various types of MXenes and functional MXenes in conjugation with drug molecules, metallic nanoparticles, polymeric substrates, and other macromolecules. Finally, the future possibilities and challenges of this magnificent material are discussed in detail.

MXene nanomaterials in biomedicine: A bibliometric perspective

“…The biological applications of MXene have been discussed in numerous review publications, however, these mainly focus on the current status of overall biological applications ( Huang et al, 2018 ; Koyappayil et al, 2022 ; Parajuli et al, 2022 ) or only address a specific biomedical application such as their use as antibacterial agents, biosensors or for cancer imaging and treatment ( Ali et al, 2022 ; Hao et al, 2022 ; Ranjbari et al, 2022 ). Bibliometric analysis is a research method that statistically evaluates and visually presents the current state-of-the-art, most influential studies and upcoming trends of a given field of research ( Yang et al, 2022 ).…”

Applications of MXene and its modified materials in skin wound repair

“…Compared with two-dimensional materials such as graphene, MXene has better water dispersion and hydrophilicity, and can be uniformly dispersed in water-based solvent to construct a hydrophilic composite material with good cytocompatibility and adhesion ( Chen et al, 2017 ; Lin et al, 2021 ). The abundant surface functional groups also provide a large number of binding sites for MXene, which can be combined with other matrix materials, proteins, drugs and other biological macromolecules to achieve material modification and drug delivery, greatly expanding the application of MXene in the field of biomedicine ( Huang et al, 2020a ; Koyappayil et al, 2022 ). MXene also has an electrical conductivity close to that of graphene, and can vary between semiconductors and conductors according to the modification of its surface groups, meeting different electrical conductivity requirements of materials ( Yin et al, 2021a ; Riazi et al, 2021 ).…”

2D MXene nanocomposites: electrochemical and biomedical applications

“…184 Besides, by combining drug-loaded MXene with polymers such as PLGA or PCL, the intramuscular injection can be facilitated for the long-term release of highly effective but toxic drugs into cancerous tissues for cancer treatment. 185…”