Continuous "Snowing" Thermotherapeutic Graphene

Finding the best applications of graphene, and the continuous and scalable preparation of graphene with high quality and high purity, are still two major challenges. Herein, a "pulse-etched" microwave-induced "snowing" (PEMIS) process is developed for continuous and scalable preparation of high-quality and high-purity graphene directly in the gas phase, which is found to have excellent thermotherapeutic effects. The obtained graphene exhibits small size (≈180 nm), high quality, low oxygen content, and high purity, together with a high gas-solid conversion efficiency of ≈10.46%. Considering the intrinsic characteristics of this high-purity and small-sized biocompatible graphene, in particular the low-frequency microwave absorption property as well as the good thermal transformation ability, a graphene-based combination therapeutic system is demonstrated for microwave thermal therapy (MTT) for the first time, exhibiting a high tumor ablation rate of ≈86.7%. This is different from the principle of ions vibrating in a confined space used by current MTT sensitization materials. Not limited to this application, it is foreseen that this PEMIS-based high-quality graphene will allow the search for further suitable applications of graphene.