Nanodiamonds are diamonds of ~5 nm in size. They can be produced by impact events such as an explosion or meteoritic impacts. A single imperfection can give a nanodiamond an isolated color center, which lets it function as single, trapped atom. Relative to the defect size, they have huge surface areas that allow them to bond with a variety of other materials. Their non-toxicity means that nanodiamonds may be useful in biomedical and mechanical applications. Although the potential of nanodiamond in drug delivery has been demonstrated, fundamental mechanisms, thermodynamics, and kinetics of drug adsorption on nanodiamond are still poorly understood. To fully exploit the potential of nanodiamond in drug delivery, attention must be paid to its purity, surface chemistry, dispersion quality, as well as to temperature, ionic composition, and other parameters of the environment that may influence drug adsorption and desorption on nanodiamond. 

Carbon materials touch every aspect of our daily life in some way. Regarding todays environmental challenges carbon may be the key elemental component, usually blended into notations such as “carbon cycle” or “carbon footprint”. Interestingly, not being used as “fossil fuel”, carbon materials also considerably contribute to the field of sustainable energy. They are central in most electrochemical energy-related applications, i.e. they also help to generate, store, transport, and save energy. Nanostructured carbon is already used in fuel cells, conventional batteries and super capacitors. Electric double layer capacitors (EDLC, also called super capacitors) are energy storage devices based on the electrical adsorption of ions at the electrode/electrolyte interface (non-Faradaic process). Porous carbons are being used widely as electrode materials for super capacitors because of their high specific surface area and relatively good electrical conductivity. 

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are cylinders of one or more layers of graphene (lattice). Diameters of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are typically 0.8 to 2 nm and 5 to 20 nm, respectively, although MWNT diameters can exceed 100 nm. CNT lengths range from less than 100 nm to 0.5 m. Individual CNT walls can be metallic or semiconducting depending on the orientation of the lattice with respect to the tube axis, which is called chirality. carbon nanotube production exceeded several thousand tons per year, used for applications in energy storage, automotive parts, boat hulls, sporting goods, water filters, thin-film electronics, coatings, actuators and electromagnetic shields, health care and environmental protection.

Carbon is essential to all known living systems, and without it life as we know it could not exist (see alternative biochemistry). The major economic use of carbon other than food and wood is in the form of hydrocarbons, most notably the fossil fuel methane gas and crude oil (petroleum). Crude oil is distilled in refineries by the petrochemical industry to produce gasoline, kerosene, and other products. Cellulose is a natural, carbon-containing polymer produced by plants in the form of wood, cotton, linen, and hemp. Cellulose is used primarily for maintaining structure in plants. Commercially valuable carbon polymers of animal origin include wool, cashmere and silk. Plastics are made from synthetic carbon polymers, often with oxygen and nitrogen atoms included at regular intervals in the main polymer chain. The raw materials for many of these synthetic substances come from crude oil. When combined with nitrogen it forms alkaloids, and with the addition of sulfur also it forms antibiotics, amino acids, and rubber products. With the addition of phosphorus to these other elements, it forms DNA and RNA, the chemical-code carriers of life, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the most important energy-transfer molecule in all living cells. While Diamond has been considered for use in several medical applications due to its unique mechanical, chemical, optical, and biological properties. These little gems have a wide range of potential applications in tribology, drug delivery, bioimaging and tissue engineering, and also as protein mimics and a filler material for nanocomposites.

Carbon is an extraordinary element because of its ability to covalently bond with different orbital hybridizations. This leads to a rich variety of molecular structures that constitute the field of organic chemistry. For millennia, there were only two known substances of pure carbon atoms: graphite and diamond. The discovery of nanometer dimensional C60, and related fullerene-structures (C70, C84), spawned the field of nanocarbon research. The next major advance in carbon research was the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs).The traditional electrochemical applications for carbon in solid electrode structures for the chlor-alkali industry as well in aluminum refining are giving way to more diverse applications requiring high-surface-area carbon i.e., capacitor, fuel cells, metal/air batteries and high-energy lithium batteries. In these of these applications carbon has the desirable combination of acceptable electrical conductivity, chemical/electrochemical compatibility to the surrounding environment, and availability in the appropriate structure for fabrication into electrodes. In addition, the low cost of carbon relative to other electronic conductors is an important advantage for its widespread use in electrodes, particularly in electrochemical systems that must compete with existing technologies. Diamond electrodes are particularly attractive for electrochemistry Because of its extraordinary chemical stability, diamond is a perspective electrode material to be used in electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering.

Large molecular building blocks for hybrid materials, such as large inorganic clusters, may be of the nanometer length scale. The term hybrid material is more often used if the inorganic units are formed in situ by molecular precursors, for example applying sol–gel reactions. The biggest distinction between a nanocomposite and a hybrid is that a hybrid material possesses a property that does not exist in either of the parent components. Graphene and single-walled carbon nanotubes are carbon materials that exhibit excellent electrical conductivities and large specific surface areas. An effective, economic way of using carbon fiber is to combine it with a resin and another material, either a fiber or a metal, to produce a hybrid structure. 

Graphene was the first 2D material to be isolated. Graphene — and other two-dimensional materials — has a long list of unique properties that have made it a hot topic for intense scientific research and the development of technological applications. These also have huge potential in their own right or in combination with graphene. The extraordinary physical properties of graphene and other 2D materials have the potential to both enhance existing technologies and also create a range of new applications. Pure graphene has an exceptionally wide range of mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Graphene can also greatly improve the thermal conductivity of a material improving heat dissipation. In applications which require very high electrical conductivity graphene can either be used by itself or as an additive to other materials. Even in very low concentrations graphene can greatly enhance the ability of electrical charge to flow in a material. Graphene’s ability to store electrical energy at very high densities is exceptional. This attribute, added to its ability to rapidly charge and discharge, makes it suitable for energy storage applications.