One-step synthesis of soy protein/graphene nanocomposites and their application in photothermal therapy

Photothermal therapy, due to its security and effectiveness, has recently become a promising cancer treatment after surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and biological therapy. In this article, soy protein isolate/reduced graphene oxide (SPI/rGO) nanocomposites are prepared via a simple and green process. That is, GO is reduced in situ and stabilized by SPI, an abundant, low-cost, sustainable natural material, and simultaneously forms SPI/rGO nanocomposites.. The resulting SPI/rGO nanocomposites disperse in water very well and exhibit good biocompatibility due to the attachment of SPI to the surface of rGO. Such SPI/rGO nanocomposites demonstrate an excellent photothermal capacity and are able to kill HeLa cells efficiently with near-infrared irradiation (808 nm). The results in this work suggest that such a SPI/rGO hybrid material could be a promising candidate for future applications of photothermal therapy. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.