Synthesis of ultra-small MXene nanorods for enhanced photothermal therapy of breast cancer in vitro

Abstract

Photo-responsive nanomaterials show promising photothermal therapy (PTT) applications for superficial and internal tumors. However, most photo-synthesizers possess a small extinction coefficient and low photothermal conversion efficacy, limiting their use for advanced PTT. Herein, a facile and inexpensive method was employed to synthesize ultra-thin titanium carbide (Ti2C) MXene nanorods for the PTT of breast cancer. The average width and length of the prepared Ti2C nanorods were about 20 nm and 80 nm, respectively, demonstrating excellent biocompatibility and significantly encapsulated into the 4T1 cancer cells. The nanorods revealed promising photothermal properties and increased temperature from 20 to 58 °C enough for tumor ablation after 808 nm laser light irradiation, indicating remarkable cancer PTT in vitro. Moreover, Ti2C nanorods show favorable photostability and significant photothermal conversion efficiency of 63.3 % because of good near-infrared (NIR) absorption. This work proves ultra-thin Ti2C MXene nanorods as a new photothermal agent for phototherapy applications.