Investigation of the survival viability of cervical cancer cells (HeLa) under visible light induced photo-catalysis with facile synthesized WO3/ZnO nanocomposite

摘要

The photo catalytic degradation, a proven chemical process used for the decontamination of organic/inorganic pollutants and microorganisms in water was implemented. In this work for the selective killing of cervical cancer cells ( ) by using nano-composite of (Zinc Oxcide), (tungsten oxide) and ( ) as a photo-catalyst under the irradiation of visible light. All the three nanostructured semiconducting materials (WO3, ZnO and n-WO3/ZnO) were synthesized by facile chemical precipitation method and their morphological and optical characterization studies were carried out to elucidate the observed enhancement in the photo-catalytic killing of HeLa cancer cells with n-WO3/ZnO as a photo-catalyst. After 60 min of photo-catalytic reaction with as a photo-catalyst, a survival viability of HeLa cancer cells as low as 15% was achieved (nearly 85% of killing), as compared to 65% of HeLa cancer cell survival viability (nearly 35% of killing) with individual use of and as photo-catalysts under the same irradiation and experimental conditions. This improved photo-catalytic killing of cancer cells using in the visible spectral region is attributed to the enhanced visible light absorption and reduced electron hole recombination, characteristically brought about in the composite material. As photo-catalytic killing of the cancer cells can be selective, localized and reasonably efficient, in principle, this method can be considered as a non-invasive targeted treatment option for killing any type of cancer cells. cells, in particular are the cervical cancer cell and the tumors in and around cervix, containing cells can be non-surgically accessed and photo-catalytically treated with appropriate photo-catalyst and light source.