Polyphenols attached graphene nanosheets for high efficiency NIR mediated photodestruction of cancer cells

Green tea-reduced graphene oxide (GT-rGO) sheets have been exploited for high efficiency near infrared (NIR) photothermal therapy of HT29 and SW48 colon cancer cells. The biocompatibility of GT-rGO sheets was investigated by means of MTT assays. The polyphenol constituents of GT-rGO act as effective targeting ligands for the attachment of rGO to the surface of cancer cells, as confirmed by the cell granularity test in flow cytometry assays and also by scanning electron microscopy. The photo-thermal destruction of higher metastatic cancer cells (SW48) is found to be more than 20% higher than that of the lower metastatic one (HT29). The photo-destruction efficiency factor of the GT-rGO is found to be at least two orders of magnitude higher than other carbon-based nano-materials. Such excellent cancer cell destruction efficiency provided application of a low concentration of rGO (3 mg/L) and NIR laser power density (0.25 W/cm2) in our photo-thermal therapy of cancer cells.