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The Cytotoxicity of Layered Black Phosphorus
Author(s) -
Latiff Naziah Mohamad,
Teo Wei Zhe,
Sofer Zdenek,
Fisher Adrian C.,
Pumera Martin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201502006
Subject(s) - black phosphorus , cytotoxicity , white phosphorus , toxicity , phosphorus , viability assay , formazan , mtt assay , chemistry , graphene , toxicology , materials science , nanotechnology , cell , biology , biochemistry , in vitro , organic chemistry , optoelectronics
Black phosphorus (BP), the latest addition to the family of 2D layered materials, has attracted much interest owing to potential optoelectronics, nanoelectronics, and biomedicine applications. Little is known about its toxicity, such as whether it could be as toxic as white phosphorus. In response to the possibility of BP employment into commercial products and biomedical devices, its cytotoxicity to human lung carcinoma epithelial cells (A549) was investigated. Following a 24 h exposure of the cells with different BP concentrations, cell viability assessments were conducted using water‐soluble tetrazolium salt (WST‐8) and methylthiazolyldiphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. The toxicological effects were found to be dose‐dependent, with BP reducing cell viabilities to 48 % (WST‐8) and 34 % (MTT) at 50 μg mL −1 exposure. This toxicity was observed to be generally intermediate between that of graphene oxides and exfoliated transition‐metal dichalcogenides (MoS 2 , WS 2 , WSe 2 ). The relatively low toxicity paves the way to utilization of black phosphorus.