Many of the proposed fullerene applications are to be practical technologies in a wide range of areas such as IT devices, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, environmental, and energy industries. The direct application of fullerene and their derivatives to biological targets is now yielding promising applications in medicine.
Such attention to them is caused by unique chemical and physical properties of the fullerene core, including their photodynamic properties. The hydrophobic spheroid and the radical sponge character of fullerene are responsible for the activity in different fields.
The C60 fullerene, thanks to its small size, can easily cross the so-called blood-brain barrier. This property can lead to numerous medical applications, especially in the field of nanomedicines, through the implementation of new active compounds that could be used by the brain.
Fullerenes are relatively safe and inert, and yet have properties that allow the substance to create active derivatives.
Studied properties of fullerene derivatives: