A new approach to design safe CNTs with an understanding of redox potential

BACKGROUND: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are being increasingly industrialized and applied for various products. As of today, although several toxicological evaluations of CNTs have been conducted, designing safer CNTs is not practiced because reaction kinetics of CNTs with bioactive species is not fully understood. RESULTS: The authors propose a kinetic mechanism to establish designing safe CNTs as a new goal. According to a literature search on the behavior of CNTs and the effects of impurities, it is found that chemical reactions on CNT surface are attributed to redox reactions involving metal impurities and carbon structures at the CNT surface. CONCLUSION: A new goal is proposed to design safer CNTs using the redox potential hypothesis. The value of this hypothesis must be practically investigated and proven through the further experiments.