A novel aspect of functionalized graphene quantum dots in cytotoxicity studies.

A novel aspect of functionalized graphene quantum dots in cytotoxicity studies. Toxicol In Vitro. 2019 Sep 10;:104649 Authors: Vahdati BM, Pourhashem S, Sedghi M, Vaezi Z, Shojaedin-Givi B, Rashidi A, Naderi-Manesh H Abstract Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) represent a new generation of graphene-based nanomaterials with enormous potential for use and development of a variety of biomedical applications. However, up to now little studies have investigated the impact of GQDs on human health in case of exposure. GQDs were synthesized from citric acid as carbon precursor by hydrothermal treatment at 160 °C for 4 h. The synthesized GQDs showed strong blue emission under UV-Irradiation with fluorescence quantum yield of 9.8%. The obtained GQDs were further carbonized, activated and functionalized by nitric acid vapor method. Nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms were used to analyze the surface area and porous structures of GQDs. The results revealed that compared to GQDs, the specific surface area of functionalized graphene quantum dots (fGQDs) has been increased from 0.0667 to 2.5747 m2/g and pore structures have been enhanced significantly. The potential cytotoxic effect of GQDs, fGQDs and GO suspensions was evaluated on HFF cell line using MTT assays and flow cytometry method after 24 h incubation. We have for the first time demonstrated that by carbonization, activation and functionalization of GQDs they still showed cytocompa...
Source: Toxicology in Vitro - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Toxicol In Vitro Source Type: research