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TiN nanoparticles: synthesis and application as near-infrared photothermal agents for cancer therapy

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Abstract

We have developed TiN nanoparticles (NPs) as a novel near-infrared-activated photothermal agent. The effect of nitridation temperature on the optical property and photothermal performance of the TiN NPs were investigated. The nanoparticles nitrided at 1000 °C presented a significant absorption along the whole biological spectral range (i.e., for wavelengths above 700 nm). After coated with polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA), they exhibited well-defined spherical morphology with average size of ~ 50 nm. We also demonstrated their therapeutic efficacy against SW1990 pancreatic cancer cells. The results indicated that the PSS/PDDA-coated TiN NPs offered several advantages including high photothermal conversion efficiency (44.6%), high photothermal stability, broad spectral tunability, low cytotoxicity and facile synthesis process. These features make TiN NPs promising alternative for use as a photothermal agent in cancer photothermal treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Research Funds for the Central Universities, National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50702037), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai Municipality (No. 16ZR1400700) and Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission Project (No. 2012y193).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wenqi Jiang & Aihua Yao

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wenqi Jiang & Aihua Yao

  3. Department of Emergency, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Qingge Fu

  4. Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, 063009, China

    Hengyong Wei

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  1. Wenqi Jiang
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Correspondence to Aihua Yao.

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Jiang, W., Fu, Q., Wei, H. et al. TiN nanoparticles: synthesis and application as near-infrared photothermal agents for cancer therapy. J Mater Sci 54, 5743–5756 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-03272-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-03272-z

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