Encapsulation of the anticancer drug cisplatin into nanotubes

One important application of nanotechnology is that of drug delivery, and in particular the targeted delivery of drugs using nanotubes. A proper understanding of the encapsulation behavior of drug molecules into nanotubes is vital for the development of nanoscale drug delivery vehicles. Furthermore, there are many other materials which may form single-walled nanotubes, such as carbon, boron carbide, boron nitride and silicon, and it is also important to understand their advantages and disadvantages. This paper presents a synopsis of the recent work in which boron nitride, boron carbide and silicon nanotubes are examined as drug delivery vehicles, and their encapsulation behavior is compared to previous work of the authors on carbon nanotubes.