Experimental study: Investigation of graphene oxide nanoparticles effect on increasing the thermal effect of ultrasound waves on water for thermal therapy of cancer cells

Ultrasound hyperthermia with nanoparticles has been regarded as an effective method for localized death of cancerous cells with fewer side effects to the surrounding normal tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the increasing of water temperature by ultrasound waves in the presence of graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles in order to be used in thermal treatment of cancerous cells.

At first, the thermal effect of heater and bath sonokit were investigated on variation of the deionized (DI) water and pegylated GO temperatures for 30 minutes. The effect of ultrasonic waves with different power over 10 minutes were also evaluated on pegylated GO solution and DI water with 0.2 and 0.4 mg/ml concentrations.

When the heater was used, the temperature rise of the GO and water was almost close to each other and there was no statistical difference (p-value>0.01). In bath sonokit, the temperature rise of GO was 40 C more than DI water. When probe sonokit was used, the temperature increased with the increase in time and GO concentration, but there was no significant difference in this increase compared to water and the presence of GO did not favorably increase the temperature.

It seems that GO nanoparticles in laboratory conditions of this study cannot play the role of heat exchanger for ultrasonic waves. Further study of functionalized reduced GO nanoparticles with different laboratory conditions is recommended.