New nanotube findings give boost to potential biomedical applications
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A detail of a carbon nanotube, composed of linked hexagonal rings, with a representative molecule of branching polyethylene glycol (PEG) attached. Courtesy of Hongjie Dai
Carbon nanotubes-cylinders so tiny that it takes 50,000 lying side by side to equal the width of a human hair-are packed with the potential to be highly accurate vehicles for administering medicines and other therapeutic agents to patients. But a dearth of data about what happens to the tubes after they discharge their medical payloads has been a major stumbling block to progress.
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