Material Design for Near-Infrared Photothermal Therapy

Photothermal therapy, as a promising and emerging method of cancer treatement, uses the emission of near-infrared light for tumor ablation. However, current photothermal agents have led to inefficient tumor ablation due to its inability to penetrate deeply into affected tissue. In our research, we perform first-principles calculations to find the optimal materials for near-infrared light emission by doping graphene. Our results show the band gaps corresponding to near-infrared light emission and we claim that oxygen doped graphene is a suitable source for near-infrared light. It is possible to improve the efficiency of photothermal therapy by using these materials, hence our results pave the way for photothermal therapy.