With reference to carbon nanotubes, consider the following statements:
- 1.They can be used as carriers of drugs and antigens in the human body.
- 2.They can be made into artificial blood capillaries for an injured part of human body.
- 3.They can be used in biochemical sensors.
- 4.Carbon nanotubes are biodegradable.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) 1, 3 and 4 only
Carbon nanotubes are tiny hollow tubes of rolled-up carbon sheets that are used in medicine to carry drugs and in biochemical sensors, and living systems can break them down with enzymes. Making artificial blood capillaries from them is not an established use, so statement 2 is the one that fails.
- ✓ 1. Carbon nanotubes are used as carriers, for example to deliver drugs and other payloads in the body, and are studied for bioimaging as well.
- ✗ 2. The established medical uses are bioimaging, drug delivery and biosensing. Building artificial blood capillaries for an injured body part is not one of them.
- ✓ 3. Biosensing is one of the main biomedical uses of functionalised carbon nanotubes.
- ✓ 4. Enzymes such as peroxidases can degrade carbon nanotubes, so they can be cleared from the body after delivering their payload; research is now focused on this route.
Remember · Carbon nanotubes: drug carriers and biosensors, and enzyme-degradable; not used as artificial blood capillaries.
Sources
- Peroxidase-mediated biodegradation of carbon nanotubes in vitro and in vivo (review, PubMed Central, NIH author manuscript) ↗ “Biodegradation represents an attractive pathway for the eliminating of CNT carriers post-delivery and may be integral in catalyzing the release of the cargo from the delivery vehicle.”
- Applications of Pristine and Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene, and Graphene Nanoribbons in Biomedicine (review, PubMed Central) ↗ “The main part of this review includes the description of the applications of functionalized CNMs in bioimaging, drug delivery, and biosensors.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·