Freestanding germanene nanosheets for rapid degradation and photothermal conversion

  • M. Ge
  • , M. Zong
  • , D. Xu
  • , Z. Chen
  • , J. Yang
  • , H. Yao
  • , C. Wei
  • , Y. Chen
  • , H. Lin*
  • , J. Shi*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

Germanium plays an important role in biomedical utilizations, mainly for inducing erythropoietic, antimicrobial, antiviral, antimutagenic, and immunomodulating effects. The biological applications of organic germanium have been gradually reported in recent years; however, the intrinsic poor biodegradation of most inorganic nanomaterials prevent their further in vivo applications and clinical translation in biomedicine. Herein, two-dimensional (2D) quasi-freestanding and fully biodegradable germanene nanosheets have been synthesized from Zintl-phase ladder-shaped binary germanide (CaGe2), which feature intriguing physiochemical properties for photo-triggered therapeutics and photoacoustic diagnostic imaging, as well as excellent biocompatibility, in addition to the excellent degradability compared with other typical 2D biomaterials. This work presents a novel type of 2D structured inorganic germanium biomaterial featuring attractive biomedical multifunctionalities, which is expected to benefit clinical and translational medicine.

Original languageEnglish
Article number100119
JournalMaterials Today Nano
Volume15
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Germanene
  • Nanomedicine
  • Photothermal conversion
  • Rapid biodegradation
  • Two-dimensional nanosheets

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