Hyperthermia heating efficiency of glycine functionalised graphene oxide modified nickel nanoparticles

Hyperthermia has attracted significant attention as a potential low-cost and safe approach to cancer therapy. The development of highly efficient magnetic materials is pivotal for significantly broadening the application of this method. The present work describes the hyperthermia heating efficiency of sol-gel synthesized nickel nanoparticles and their functionalized moieties. Inclusion of nickel nanoparticles inside graphene oxide sheets and further functionalization with glycine were carried out to reduce the cytotoxicity of the magnetic nanoparticle. Vibrating Sample Magnetometer measurements (VSM) illustrate the ferromagnetic nature of all the samples. Saturation magnetization was found to be 40 emu/g and 13 emu/g for bare nickel nanoparticle and glycine functionalised graphene oxide modified nickel nanoparticle respectively. The magnetic nanomaterials showed good potential for hyperthermia applications, with a specific absorption rate of 63 W/g and 23 W/g for nickel nanoparticles and glycine functionalised graphene oxide modified nickel nanoparticles, respectively. The in-vitro cytotoxicity of the functionalised nickel nanoparticles on normal cells was examined in terms of cell viability. The percentage viability of 94.55 at higher concentration highlights the nontoxic nature of the functionalised material. The results taken together suggest that sol-gel synthesis of nickel nanoparticles with proper functionalization is appropriate for biomedical applications, especially for magnetic hyperthermia cancer therapy.