(June 18, 2015) Researchers have found an easy way to
produce carbon nanoparticles that are small enough to evade the body’s immune
system, reflect light in the near-infrared range for easy detection, and carry
payloads of pharmaceutical drugs to targeted tissues.
Unlike other methods of making carbon nanoparticles – which
require expensive equipment and purification processes that can take days – the
new approach generates the particles in a few hours and uses only a handful of
ingredients, including store-bought molasses.
The researchers, led by University of Illinois
bioengineering professors Dipanjan Pan and Rohit Bhargava, report their
findings in the journal Small.