Fabrication of Titania Nanotubes-Graphene Hybrid for Using in Photothermal Therapy of Breast Cancer

Background and Aim: Breast cancer is a serious health concern forwomen. There are several ways for the treatment of breast cancer.Nevertheless, the lack of selectivity in these methods leads to undesirableadverse effects. Photothermal therapy is a noninvasive cancer therapytechnique in which tumor tissues are exposed to light and received lightis converted to heat to promote tumor destruction. Photothermal therapycontains raising the temperature of tumor cells to the range of 42-46°C, leading to cell death. The aim of this study is the fabrication of TiO2nanotubes-graphene hybrid for using in photothermal therapy.Methods: TiO2 NTs layer was formed by electrochemical anodization of Ti thin foils. Then the anodized samples were sonicated in ethanol for 5hto separate the TiO2 nanotubes from the substrates. The TiO2 nanotubesgraphenehybrid was made as follows: The GO was dispersed in ethanolby ultrasonic treatment for 30 min. Subsequently, this suspension wasmixed with the TiO2 solution and the mixture was stirred for another20 min. The reduced form of the GO, as well as the TiO2 nanotubesattachment, was obtained by UV irradiation for 3h. Meanwhile, the UVirradiation led to photoreduction of the GO to the graphene (RGO) andthe suspension color changed from gray to black.Results: In order to TiO2 nanotubes formation the electrochemicalanodizing process was performed. The SEM image of the anodizedsubstrate showed that the TiO2 nanotubes were orderly formed throughoutthe substrate. The estimated inner diameter of nanotubes is 90 nm andthe outer diameter of nanotubes is 160 nm. The XRD pattern of TNTsgraphenehybrid showed that the photocatalytic reduction of grapheneoxide occurred by ultraviolet irradiation. Also, there is no graphene oxidepeak in this pattern, which indicates that all of the graphene oxides havebeen reduced and converted into the graphene (rGO). The graphene(rGO) sheets can be observed in the SEM image of TNTs-graphenehybrid. Moreover, it can be seen that TiO2 nanotubes were distributed onthe graphene sheets.Conclusion: In this research, we investigated the fabrication of TiO2-graphene hybrid, which could be used for photothermal therapy of breastcancer. At first, the TiO2 nanotubes were formed by electrochemicalanodizing process and results showed that the TiO2 nanotubes werecompletely formed on the Ti substrate. Then the hybrid of TiO2 nanotubesand graphene was synthesized. The photoreduction of graphene oxidewas completely occurred by UV radiation and the TNTs-graphene hybridwas obtained.

Keywords:

Photothermal therapy , Breast cancer , Titania nanotubes