Center for Nanomedicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083, P. R. China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Sep 16;58(38):13405-13410. doi: 10.1002/anie.201908377. Epub 2019 Aug 13.
As a new family member of the emerging two-dimensional (2D) monoelemental materials (Xenes), germanene has shown promising advantages over the prototypical 2D Xenes, such as black phosphorus (BP) and graphene. However, efficient manufacture of novel germanene nanostructures is still a challenge. Herein, a simple top-down approach for the liquid-exfoliation of ultra-small germanene quantum dots (GeQDs) is presented. The prepared GeQDs possess an average lateral size of about 4.5 nm and thickness of about 2.2 nm. The functionalized GeQDs were demonstrated to be robust photothermal agents (PTAs) with outstanding photothermal conversion efficacy (higher than those of graphene and BPQDs), superior stability, and excellent biocompatibility. As a proof-of-principle, 2D GeQDs-based PTAs were used in fluorescence/photoacoustic/photothermal-imaging-guided hyperpyrexia ablation of tumors. This work could expand the application of 2D germanene to the field of photonic cancer nanomedicine.
作为新兴二维（2D）单元素材料（Xenes）的新成员，锗烯在各方面均优于典型的 2D Xenes，如黑磷（BP）和石墨烯。然而，新型锗烯纳米结构的高效制造仍然是一个挑战。在此，我们提出了一种简单的自上而下的方法，用于超小锗烯量子点（GeQDs）的液相剥离。所制备的 GeQDs 具有约 4.5nm 的平均横向尺寸和约 2.2nm 的厚度。功能化的 GeQDs 被证明是强大的光热剂（PTAs），具有出色的光热转换效率（高于石墨烯和 BPQDs）、优越的稳定性和良好的生物相容性。作为一个原理验证，基于二维 GeQDs 的 PTA 被用于荧光/光声/光热成像引导的肿瘤高热消融。这项工作可以将二维锗烯的应用扩展到光学生物癌症纳米医学领域。
