Biomedical and Human Health Applications of ZnO, CuO, and Cu2O Oxide Nanomaterials: A Literature Review

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO), copper(II) oxide (CuO), and copper(I) oxide (Cu2O) are among the most extensively studied metal oxide semiconductor materials, with applications spanning electronics, sensing, and photovoltaics. Beyond these established technological domains, a substantial and rapidly growing body of literature has documented significant human health-related applications of these same oxide materials, spanning antimicrobial therapy, wound healing, drug delivery, cancer theranostics, and biosensing. This review synthesizes recent literature on the biomedical applications of ZnO, CuO, and Cu2O nanomaterials, with particular attention to the relationship between material synthesis approach, resulting structural and optical properties, such as band gap and crystallite morphology, and documented biological activity. The materials examined share fabrication and characterization methodologies, including magnetron and ion-plasma deposition, controlled oxygen partial pressure processing for phase selection, and structural characterization via X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy, with techniques applied in materials physics research on these oxides for electronic and sensor applications. The review addresses three principal health-related application domains: antimicrobial and wound-healing activity, attributed primarily to reactive oxygen species generation and metal ion release upon cellular internalization; drug delivery and cancer theranostic applications, exploiting the tunable band gap and photoluminescent properties of ZnO-based nanostructures; and biosensing applications leveraging the high electron mobility and biocompatibility of ZnO nanostructures. The reviewed literature indicates that the same structural and electronic properties that determine these materials' performance in conventional electronic and photovoltaic applications, namely controlled band gap, crystallite size, and defect density, are directly implicated in determining their biological activity and biomedical performance, suggesting substantial translational relevance between materials physics research on these oxides and their biomedical application development.