Fabrication of polypyrrole enveloped reduced graphene oxide/iron oxide and determination of its photothermal properties

Recently photothermal therapy has been viewed as an alternative to cancer treatment methods, fabrication of photosensitizing agents with high photothermal conversion efficiency has gained importance. In this study, polypyrrole enveloped reduced graphene oxide/iron oxide (rGO/Fe3O4@PPy) ternary nanocomposite was synthesized and its photothermal performance was put to test. Aqueous rGO/Fe3O4@PPy dispersions with 0.025–0.2 mg/mL concentrations were exposed to irradiation using a near-infrared laser at 1.5–3.0 W/cm2 power densities, and the heating curves were obtained, which revealed that the agent can be used in hyperthermia treatments. Photothermal efficiency of the nanocomposite was found to be as high as 68.0%. Furthermore, photothermal stability tests revealed that the nanocomposite can be used multiple times without a significant loss in obtained maximum temperature. The findings show that the design of the ternary nanocomposite makes it an excellent candidate for photothermal therapy practices.