Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Performance of Nanosized Anatase TiO2 Doped with CdS Quantum Dots for Cancer-Cell Treatment

Abstract EN

CdS quantum-dots-(QDs-)doped TiO2 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized using the sol-gel technique and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, EDS, UV-Vis, and FS.

They were then used as a new “photosensitizer” based on photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer-cell treatment.

The photocatalytic activities of CdS-TiO2 on leukemia tumors were investigated by using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay.

The ultrastructural morphology of treated cells was also studied by AFM.

The experimental results indicated that an obvious inhibition of tumor growth would be observed in groups treated with CdS-TiO2 nanocomposites, and the PDT efficiency in the presence of CdS-doped TiO2 was significantly higher than that of TiO2, revealing that the photocatalytic activities of TiO2 could be effectively enhanced by the modification of CdS QDs.

Additionally, CdS- TiO2 can exhibit a very high photodynamic efficiency of 80.5% at a final concentration of 200 μg/mL under visible-light irradiation.

CdS-TiO2 nanocomposites in this case were regarded as a promising application for cancer-cell treatment.