Effects of Lateral Size, Thickness, and Stabilizer Concentration on the Cytotoxicity of Defect-Free Graphene Nanosheets: Implications for Biological Applications
Chen‐Xia Hu, Oliver Read, Yuyoung Shin, Yingxian Chen, Jingjing Wang, Matthew Boyes, Niting Zeng, Adyasha Panigrahi, Kostas Kostarelos, Igor Larrosa, Sandra Vranic, Cinzia Casiraghi
Abstract
In this work, we apply liquid cascade centrifugation to highly concentrated graphene dispersions produced by liquid-phase exfoliation in water with an insoluble bis-pyrene stabilizer to obtain fractions containing nanosheets with different lateral size distributions. The concentration, stability, size, thickness, and the cytotoxicity profile are studied as a function of the initial stabilizer concentration for each fraction. Our results show that there is a critical initial amount of stabilizer (0.4 mg/mL) above which the dispersions show reduced concentration, stability, and biocompatibility, no matter the lateral size of the flakes.