Study of Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite for cancer-cell treatment

The increasing incidence of cancer all over the world demands new, effective and secure materials for treatment. In this paper, we propose Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite for cancer-cell treatment because noble metal nanoparticles are supposed to enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticles. To evaluate the cancer-cell killing effect of our Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite, TiO2 and Au/TiO2 nanoparticles are also introduced. The prepared Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite are characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV–vis adsorption spectra. Results of cell treatment indicate that Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite, as extremely stable metal–semiconductor nanomaterial, can exhibit a very high photodynamic efficiency under a mild ultraviolet radiation. And our Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite shows to be more effective in cancer-cell treatment than TiO2 and Au/TiO2 nanoparticles. As a result, Pt/TiO2 nanocomposite may be supposed to have a promising application for cancer-cell treatment.