Women Lead the Charge Across the Many Shades of Carbon Science

Carbon is the great shape-shifter of the periodic table. Depending on how its atoms arrange themselves, it can form the softest pencil graphite or the hardest known natural material, and at the nanoscale it produces an entire family of structures whose dimensionality alone dictates their behavior. A special collection of research published in Frontiers in Carbon, curated under the title Women in Carbon Science and Technology: The Many Shades of Carbon, brings together original studies and a review led by women principal investigators, from internationally recognized leaders to early career researchers, and maps just how broad that carbon landscape has become. The collection spans carbon dots, fullerenes, single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, graphene and its derivatives such as graphene oxide, graphyne and graphane, and it traces these materials from fundamental theory all the way to flexible sensors, biomedical devices and sustainable water treatment technologies.

The scientific case for this breadth rests on a remarkable set of intrinsic properties. Carbon nanotubes and graphene combine exceptional mechanical strength with high electrical and thermal conductivity and distinctive optical behavior, a combination that has made them ideal building blocks for next-generation technologies since their rise to prominence. Carbon nanotubes in particular have already moved from laboratory curiosities toward commercial applications, while graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon arranged in a honeycomb lattice, opened an entirely new field of two-dimensional materials research. More recently, intensely fluorescent and eco-friendly carbon nanoparticles, known as carbon dots, have emerged as versatile tools for sensing, bio-imaging, energy conversion, electronics and nanomedicine. Because carbon can be processed from a wide variety of natural and synthetic sources and combined with other materials into heterostructures and composites, researchers can tailor its properties to an almost dizzying range of end uses.

One of the most striking applications highlighted in the collection addresses a pressing environmental problem: the removal of organic pollutants from water. In one study, carbon nanotubes and nanofibers were synthesized directly on serpentinite, an ultrabasic rock, to create a composite material capable of removing the herbicide sulfentrazone from contaminated water. In a complementary investigation, other carbon forms proved equally effective as water treatment remedies, with researchers elucidating the precise mechanisms by which multidimensional graphene nanostructures adsorb paracetamol, one of the most commonly detected pharmaceutical contaminants in water systems. Together, these studies illustrate how carbon’s enormous surface area and tunable surface chemistry can be harnessed not just for high-tech electronics but for the unglamorous but vital work of cleaning water supplies.

A recurring technical challenge in graphene applications is dispersion. Pristine graphene tends to aggregate in solution, which limits its usefulness in liquid-phase processing. The standard workaround is to use derivatives such as graphene oxide, whose surface carries several oxygen-containing functional groups that allow it to mix efficiently with other materials, including polymers. Building on this advantage, one team incorporated graphene oxide into the conductive polymers PEDOT:PSS and PEDOT to produce conductive inks, which were then used as active layers in flexible methanol sensor devices. This line of work points toward printed, bendable electronics in which carbon-based inks replace rigid conventional materials. In a separate demonstration of industrial relevance, new fabrication processes involving graphene-oxide-reinforced ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene were shown to be scalable, meaning they are compatible with industrial manufacturing settings rather than confined to laboratory-scale batches.

Tuning the properties of carbon nanomaterials, and ensuring they can be successfully interfaced with other materials, generally requires modifying their chemical structure through deliberate functionalization strategies. These strategies can be explored through both theoretical and experimental approaches, and the collection showcases both. On the theoretical side, researchers investigated the electronic properties of quantum corrals formed from fractal architectures of carbon atoms, computing band structures and the spatial distributions of electronic states. Such calculations can guide the synthesis of novel fractal nanostructures and highlight new functionalization possibilities that experimentalists can then pursue. This interplay between simulation and synthesis is a hallmark of modern materials science, where computational screening increasingly directs laboratory effort toward the most promising candidate structures.

Graphene oxide’s oxygenated functional groups do more than aid dispersion; they also act as anchor points for attaching other species, such as biomolecules or medicines, through a variety of synthetic approaches. This anchoring chemistry underpins much of the biomedical promise of carbon nanomaterials, which benefit from intrinsic biocompatibility. One study incorporated carbon dots directly into polyvinyl alcohol to produce fluorescent films suitable for wearable biochemical sensors or therapeutic remedies. These films could serve as colorimetric pH sensors, monitoring the pH changes that characterize the wound healing process, or as antioxidants in wound treatment, opening the door to bioactive dressings that do more than simply cover an injury. The prospect of a bandage that reports on and actively supports healing captures the interdisciplinary spirit that the research collection was designed to celebrate.

Biocompatibility, however, cannot be assumed; it must be tested, and understanding the potential toxicity of carbon nanomaterials, heterostructures and their derivatives is an area of intense investigation precisely because these materials are so often interfaced with the human body and biological samples. Researchers examined the behavior of normal and cancer-affected cells, including their viability and spreading, on beds of single-walled carbon nanotubes and on heterostructures combining single-walled carbon nanotubes with zinc oxide nanowires. Both materials proved biocompatible, but the concentration of released zinc ions emerged as a critical factor, a reminder that in nanomedicine the details of composition and degradation matter as much as the base material itself.

In a different biomedical study, the biodistribution of polyethylene glycol-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes was analyzed after intravenous delivery, to assess whether the nanotubes could cross biological membranes and reach specific sites in the rat brain, such as the brain cortex parenchyma, without causing acute toxic effects. The ability to deliver functional nanomaterials across the formidable barrier protecting the brain has profound implications for future diagnostics and therapies, and the finding that surface functionalization with polyethylene glycol enables such targeting while avoiding acute toxicity offers a design principle for the next generation of carbon-based biomedical platforms.

The diversity of the carbon nanomaterials featured in the collection, and the breadth of their applications, reflect the dynamic and interdisciplinary nature of the field. The editors emphasize that the innovative research presented not only advances fundamental science but also opens new avenues for technological and biomedical applications, and they express the hope that this body of work will continue to inspire collaboration and progress in carbon-based research and technology. That collaborative ethos is visible in the geography and disciplines represented: contributors span institutions in the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil and the United Kingdom, and the work ranges from quantum-scale electronic theory to scalable polymer processing and environmental remediation.

The collection carries a deliberate tribute. It is dedicated to Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist who lived from 1930 to 2017 and whose lifelong commitment to science and technology, pioneering work in carbon research, and inspiring mentorship and support of women in science earned her the affectionate attribute of Queen of Carbon. Dresselhaus’s career demonstrated that carbon, often dismissed as a mundane element, held deep physics waiting to be uncovered, and the research gathered here, led by women across five countries and multiple disciplines, stands as a living continuation of that legacy. From fractal quantum corrals to wound dressings and water purification composites, the many shades of carbon are being explored, and defined, by researchers who follow in her footsteps.

Subject of Research: Women-led research on carbon nanomaterials and their applications in sensing, biomedicine and environmental technology

Article Title: Editorial: Women in Carbon Science and Technology-“The Many Shades of Carbon”

Article References: Kuljanishvili, I., Pantano, M. F., Borin Barin, G., Striccoli, M., Goulart Silva, G., & Ivaturi, A. (2024). Editorial: Women in Carbon Science and Technology-“The Many Shades of Carbon”. Frontiers in Carbon, 3, Article 1521817. https://doi.org/10.3389/frcrb.2024.1521817

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/frcrb.2024.1521817

Keywords: carbon nanomaterials, graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, carbon dots, water treatment, biomedical applications, flexible sensors, functionalization, Mildred Dresselhaus, women in science, nanotoxicity