Photothermal and adsorption effects of silver selenide nanoparticles modified by different surfactants in nursing care of cancer patients

Silver selenide nanoparticles have advantages of low cytotoxicity, desirable near-infrared light response characteristics, and easy surface modification, which attract increasing attention in chemo-photothermal therapy and nursing care of cancer patients. In this contribution, we synthesized Ag2Se nanoparticles modified by the surfactant of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) using a ligand exchange strategy. Their microstructure and composition were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray Photo-electronic Spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The CTAB modified Ag2Se nanoparticles exhibited a uniform diameter distribution centered at ~12 nm. In order to investigate the photothermal and adsorption effects of CTAB-Ag2Se nanocomposites, we also prepared sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) modified Ag2Se nanoparticles to make a comparison. The CTAB-Ag2Se nanoparticles showed high photothermal properties, a photothermal conversion efficiency of 20.1% and a high drug adsorption performance of 48.2 μg/mg. Importantly, the CTAB-Ag2Se-DOX presented an MCF-7 cell activity of only 27.3% under near-infrared radiation. The results revealed that the surface-modified Ag2Se nanoparticles with CTAB had stronger antitumor ability.