Towards Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as an Integrated Component of Conductive Biomaterials: The Effect of Production Contaminants on in vitro Cell Viability and Metabolic Activity

Introduction: Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) have been the focus of considerable attention as a material with extraordinary mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties[1]. Due of these properties SWNT have been proposed for use in a number of materials and biointerface applications such as nanoelectronics, biosensors, materials and tissue engineering applications including, neural, bone and dental tissue engineering[2, 3]. As an implantable composite biomaterial, SWNT will come into direct surface contact with surrounding tissues, in the case of degradable tissue engineering scaffolds; SWNT will be completely integrated within host tissue. As such the boundary between host tissue and construct will become less clear and compatibility issues will become more acute.