Theranostic 2D Tantalum Carbide (MXene)

• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201703284
• Publication Date: 2017-12-11T09:51:03Z
• Authors: Han Lin; Youwei Wang; Shanshan Gao; Yu Chen; Jianlin Shi
• Keywords: MXenes; Tantalum carbide; Exfoliation joint

The large-dimensional and rigid ceramic bulks fabricated by high-temperature solid-phase reaction sintering have never been considered for possibly entering circulating within the blood vessels biomedical applications, especially on combating cancer. Here, it is reported first time that MAX biomaterials exhibit unique functionalities dual-mode photoacoustic/computed tomography imaging are highly effective in vivo photothermal ablation of tumors upon being exfoliated into ultrathin nanosheets atomic thickness (MXene). As a paradigm, 2D tantalum carbide (Ta4 C3 MXenes) with nanosized lateral sizes successfully synthesized based two-step liquid exfoliation strategy phase Ta4 AlC3 combined hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching probe sonication. structural, electronic, surface characteristics as-exfoliated revealed various characterizations first-principles calculations via density functional theory. Especially, superior photothermal-conversion performance (efficiency η 44.7%) vitro/in tumor biocompatible soybean phospholipid-modified systematically demonstrated. Based large family members MXenes, this work may offer paradigm MXenes can achieve specific applications (here, theranostic) providing their compositions nanostructures carefully tuned optimized to meet strict requirements biomedicine.