View Article Online

View Journal

ChemComm
Chemical Communications
Accepted Manuscript

This article can be cited before page numbers have been issued, to do this please use: V. Palmieri, E. A.
Dalchiele, G. Perini, A. Motta, M. De Spirito, R. Zanoni, A. G. Marrani and M. Papi, Chem. Commun., 2019,
DOI: 10.1039/C9CC00429G.

Volume 52 Number 1 4 January 2016 Pages 1–216 This is an Accepted Manuscript, which has been through the
Royal Society of Chemistry peer review process and has been
accepted for publication.
ChemComm
Chemical Communications Accepted Manuscripts are published online shortly after
www.rsc.org/chemcomm

acceptance, before technical editing, formatting and proof reading.

Using this free service, authors can make their results available
to the community, in citable form, before we publish the edited
article. We will replace this Accepted Manuscript with the edited
and formatted Advance Article as soon as it is available.

You can find more information about Accepted Manuscripts in the

author guidelines.

Please note that technical editing may introduce minor changes

ISSN 1359-7345
COMMUNICATION
Marilyn M. Olmstead, Alan L. Balch, Josep M. Poblet, Luis Echegoyen et al.
Reactivity differences of Sc3N@C2n (2n = 68 and 80). Synthesis of the
first methanofullerene derivatives of Sc3N@D5h-C80
to the text and/or graphics, which may alter content. The journal’s
standard Terms & Conditions and the ethical guidelines, outlined
in our author and reviewer resource centre, still apply. In no
event shall the Royal Society of Chemistry be held responsible
for any errors or omissions in this Accepted Manuscript or any
consequences arising from the use of any information it contains.

rsc.li/chemcomm
 Page 1 of 4 Please doChemComm
not adjust margins

View Article Online

Journal Name DOI: 10.1039/C9CC00429G

COMMUNICATION

N-acetyl cysteine biocompatibly reduces graphene oxide and

persists at the surface as a green radical scavenger
AReceived 00th January 20xx, Valentina Palmieri,a,b Enrique A. Dalchiele,c Giordano Perini,a Alessandro Motta,d,e Marco De
Published on 13 March 2019. Downloaded by East Carolina University on 3/14/2019 8:19:58 AM.

Accepted 00th January 20xx Spirito,a Robertino Zanoni, d Andrea Giacomo Marrani,*d and Massimiliano Papi*a,b

ChemComm Accepted Manuscript

DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x

www.rsc.org/

We demonstrate that N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) reduces Graphene
Oxide (GO) at room temperature. This represents a new green
method to produce reduced GO (rGO). NAC adheres to rGO surface
as demonstrated by several spectroscopy techniques and avoids
GO-mediated oxidation of glutathione. This method offers new
opportunities for green biocompatible rGO production and NAC-
based therapies.
In the last decade, Graphene Oxide (GO) and reduced Graphene
Oxide (rGO) have emerged as new materials in biomedical
research. Application fields include, among others, drug
delivery, bioimaging and tissue engineering.1 GO is produced by
oxidation and exfoliation of graphite and rGO can be obtained
by reduction of GO with several methods capable of restoring
pristine graphene structure. Though both derived from
graphite, GO and rGO show surprisingly distinct effects on living
systems. GO abundant surface groups provide multiple reaction
sites for proteins, enzymes, and nucleic acids and therefore GO
appears to be an ideal candidate for drug delivery applications.2
On the other hand, rGO seems to be more effective in
promoting stem cell growth and bone regeneration,3 has
reduced thrombogenicity in vivo, improved biocompatibility
and is suitable for brain tissue targeting.4
Given these interesting features for in vivo applications, several
methods have been developed for rGO production. Chemical
reduction is still the preferred rGO synthesis method for
biomedical applications due to the possibility of high-quality
and high-yield processing as well as the good dispersibility of
rGO obtained.5 However, hydrazine, the best-known widely
employed chemical reductant of GO is toxic for environment
and living systems. For this reason, many green reductants
agents have been proposed to substitute hydrazine.5 In this
paper, we set up a new reducing protocol for GO based on the
use of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). NAC is a derivative of cysteine
with an acetyl group attached to its nitrogen atom and like most
thiols can be oxidized by a large variety of radicals. NAC is an
intracellular antioxidant and direct precursor of glutathione.6
NAC acts as scavenger of free radicals and is recommended as a
potential treatment option for different disorders resulted from
generation of free oxygen radicals alone or in combination with
other drugs.7 Here we demonstrate by application of UV-VIS,
Raman and X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopies how NAC can
reduce GO at room temperature through a partial and time-
dependent removal of oxidative groups from GO surface, and
that NAC stays at the surface of the resulting rGO samples. GO
(Graphenea Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA) reduction with N-Acetyl-
L-cysteine (Calbiochem, USA) was performed using 100 l of a
solution of NAC (400 mM) mixed with 900 l of GO (100 g/ml)
without stirring at room temperature (20°C). Centrifugations at
fixed time points have been used to remove excess of NAC (two
centrifugations steps at 14000 rpm for 10 minutes with
resuspension in fresh ddH2O).

a. Istitutodi Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Francesco Vito 1,
00168, Rome, Italy
b. Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCSS, Rome, Italy
c. Instituto de Física & CINQUIFIMA, Facultad de Ingeniería, Julio Herrera y Reissig

565, C.C. 30, 11000 Montevideo, Uruguay

d. Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”, Piazzale
Scheme 1. Pictorial representation of the reduction of GO by
Aldo Moro 5, I-00185, Roma, Italy
e. INSTM UdR Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185, Roma, Italy
NAC.
*Corresponding authors: Massimiliano Papi massimiliano.papi@unicatt.it and In Fig.1a digital pictures of GO and rGO samples are shown,
Andrea Giacomo Marrani andrea.marrani@uniroma1.it where the already reported darkening of the light brown
solution of GO caused by reduction is evident. After prolonged
Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI) available: [details of any supplementary
information available should be included here]. See DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x
incubation with NAC (72h), rGO is unstable and forms

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 1

Please do not adjust margins

 Please doChemComm
not adjust margins
COMMUNICATION
aggregates that can be easily disrupted with sonication (6
minutes in high power mode with MegaRuptor, Diagenode).
GO and rGO optical absorbance UV-VIS spectra obtained using
Cytation 3 (Biotek, USA) are shown in Fig. 1b. Pristine GO
exhibits two distinctive features, the main characteristic peak at
230 nm corresponding to a plasmonic -* (C=C bonds)
transition (related also to nanometer-scale sp2 clusters8), and a
broad absorption shoulder at 300 nm, principally due to the n-
* (C=O bonds) transition.8–12 After 72h of chemical reduction
the 300 nm shoulder almost disappears. Upon NAC reduction,
the 230 nm plasmonic absorption peak progressively redshifts
(see inset of Fig. 1b), and an overall increase in absorption in the
range up to near-infrared region is observed (Fig. 1b); this
increase can be due to the restoration of sp2-conjugated
Published on 13 March 2019. Downloaded by East Carolina University on 3/14/2019 8:19:58 AM.
graphene network.8,11,13–15
The redshift of the plasmonic peak can be understood also in
terms of the restored electronic conjugation, dragging the
HOMO and LUMO back toward the unperturbed -* position,
that led to a reduction in bandgap upon NAC reduction time.
8,16,17 The optical bandgap calculated as a function of the NAC
exposure time from Tauc plots considering an indirect bandgap
for graphene oxide 11,18,19 (see Fig. S1), is shown in Fig. 1c. The
calculated bandgap exhibited a continuous decrease from ca.
3.0 eV to ca. 2.5 eV along 72 hours of NAC treatment. This
suggests that NAC can tune the optical bandgap of GO in a
controlled way.
The -potential of samples was calculated from the
electrophoretic mobility by means of the Henry correction to
Smoluchowski's equation, as reported previously 20.
-potential data show a progressive increase from a value of -
35.2 mV for GO to -24.8 mV and -23.9 mV for NAC24h and
NAC72h, respectively (Fig 1c). This trend is expected since 
potential is strictly dependent on GO degree of oxidation.21
Zeta potential is an important factor for characterization of the
dispersion stability of electrically charged particles in the
aqueous dispersion. Since nanoparticles with zeta potentials
more positive than +30 mV or more negative than -30 mV are
considered to form stable dispersions,22,23 these measurements
confirm the observed macroscopic instability of the rGO
suspension and aggregation at long storage times, as it will be
further discussed (see Fig. 4).
Figure 1 (a) Digital pictures of GO and rGO samples obtained
with NAC reduction after 24 hours (NAC24h) and 72 hours (NAC
2 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3
Please do not adjust margins
Page 2 of 4
Journal Name
72h) of incubation. (b) Optical absorbance UV-VIS spectra of GO
View Article Online
and rGO at different NAC reduction times: GO
DOI: (black line), NAC
10.1039/C9CC00429G
24h (orange line) and NAC72h (brown line). Red dashed circle
highlights the time evolution of the n-π* transition shoulder in
the optical spectrum. Inset: graph zoom detail depicting the
redshift of the π-π* plasmon peak as a function of the NAC
exposure. (c) Gradual decrease in optical bandgap upon
exposure of GO to NAC. (d) Zeta potential values of GO and NAC
reduced samples.
To analyze GO reduction, chemical composition of GO and rGO
samples was ascertained and monitored via X-ray Photoelectron
Spectroscopy (Omicron NanoTechnology) performed with an Al Kα
monochromatic source (hν = 1486.7 eV, Omicron XM-1000). The
results obtained were best-fitted with pseudo-Voigt model functions
and are reported in Figure 2 (top left panel). The typical contributions
ChemComm Accepted Manuscript
expected from the chemically inequivalent C atoms of graphene
oxide can be seen in spectrum (a), i.e. at increasing binding energy
(BE): localized C=C (284.85 eV),24,25 C-OH (hydroxyl, 285.90 eV), C-O-
C (epoxyl, 287.05 eV), C=O (carbonyl, quinonyl, 287.85 eV) and COOH
(carboxyl, 288.80 eV) groups.24–28 According to the preparation
method (Hummers) declared by the supplier, the oxygenated
functional groups composition of pristine GO is predominantly
contributed by epoxyl, carbonyl and hydroxyl moieties. After
reduction with NAC and upon increasing the contact time (from 16
to 72 h, spectra b, c and d), three effects can be highlighted: the
modest but evident intensity decrease of epoxyl component (black
dots in Figure 2, bottom panel), accompanied by the gradual rise of
an asymmetric low-BE feature at 284.55 eV (red curves and C=Cgraphite
red dots in top left and bottom panels of Figure 2, respectively), and
the significant intensification of the COOH component (blue dots in
bottom panel of Figure 2). Such findings call for a mild reduction
effect in terms of chemical composition of the resulting rGO after
contact with NAC, and the impact on the oxygenated functional
groups seems limited to the epoxyl moiety. On the other hand, the
diminution of epoxides appears paralleled by an increasing extension
of the sp2 C network typical of graphene, accounted for by the low-
BE component in spectra b-d (red line).25,27,28 As to the increased
presence of carboxyl component compared to pristine GO, this is a
clear hint of the presence of NAC molecules strongly adsorbed onto
the surface of rGO sheets, persisting after the reduction process
followed by purification operations. As a support to this hypothesis,
the amount of NAC adsorbed on GO was estimated by the STOT/C
atomic ratio from XPS, which averages to 4.5% (see Table S1).
Furthermore, the analysis of the recorded S 2p and N 1s XP spectra
(see Figure S2) results in a STOT/N atomic ratio ranging from 0.98 to
1.3, in close correspondence with the expected unitary
stoichiometric value for NAC, together with a full compatibility of BE
positions with those typical of thiolic and aminoacidic moieties.26
The STOT signal is nevertheless composed by a fraction of oxidized
sulphur (SOx) around 169 eV BE (see Figure S3 and Table S1). Since
remnants of the H2SO4 solution used in the Hummers method could
be present as contaminant in the pristine GO powders, we
hypothesize that traces of sulphate ions might contribute to the STOT
signal. On the other hand, the majority of SOx signal is more likely
due to oxidation of the thiolic function of NAC, probably occurring
during the reduction process itself.
Figure 2, top right panel, shows the corresponding Raman spectra in
the 900-2200 cm-1 range, where the characteristic D and complex G
bands appear. The theoretical reconstruction is made by symmetric
and asymmetric Lorentzian/Gaussian curves.29 The series of partially
reduced samples results in closely related bands, which are instead
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx
 Page 3 of 4 Please doChemComm
not adjust margins
Journal Name
quite distinct from those of GO. A gradual, although modest increase
of the ID/IG area ratio results from NAC16h (1.8) to NAC24h (1.9) and
NAC72h (2.0), which may be associated with an increased disorder,
due to the removal of oxygen-containing groups and formation of
new domains of conjugated sp2 carbon atoms, smaller in size but
larger in number. The FWHM of the D peak monotonically decreases
from GO (117 cm-1) to NAC16h (99.1 cm-1), NAC24h (93.8 cm-1) and
NAC72h (89.9 cm-1), a trend which further supports an increasing
degree of reduction of GO with the time of treatment.30 Consistently
with the above findings, the red shift of the G band on passing from
GO (1570 cm-1) to the NAC series (1580 ±0.3 cm-1 on the average),
suggests a partial recovery of the sp2 network.
Published on 13 March 2019. Downloaded by East Carolina University on 3/14/2019 8:19:58 AM.
Figure 2 Top left panel: C 1s XP spectra for the (a) GO, (b) NAC16h,
(c) NAC24h and (d) NAC72h samples. Top right panel: Raman spectra
in the D-G region of the (e) GO, (f) NAC16h, (g) NAC24h and (h)
NAC72h samples. In both panels experimental data (empty circles)
are overlapped with theoretical fitting results (continuous curves).
Bottom panel: Variation of the percentage of epoxyl (black dots),
C=Cgraphite (red dots) and carboxyl (blue dots) signal in the C 1s XP
spectra upon increasing the reduction time with NAC.
To confirm NAC binding after reduction, GO and rGO solutions
were characterized with Zetasizer Nano ZS (Malvern,
Herrenberg, Germany) and lateral size (LS) was calculated from
PdI distribution peak as reported previously.31 NAC samples,
even if sonicated, show a slight increase of LS from 157 nm of
GO to 195 and 243 nm respectively for rGO reduced for 24 hours
and 72 hours with NAC (Figure 3a). Representative AFM images
of GO and NAC72h obtained with NanoWizard II AFM (JPK
Instruments AG, Berlin, Germany) as reported previously,33 are
shown in Fig. 3b-c and the corresponding heights are plotted in
Fig. 3d-e. From AFM measurements we calculated an average
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx
Please do not adjust margins
COMMUNICATION
height of 0.8 and 5.3 nm for GO and NAC72h, respectively, with
View Article Online
a higher roughness (RMS) for the latter (0.1
DOI:vs. 2.2 nm). NAC72h
10.1039/C9CC00429G
surface reveals a non-uniform absorption of multi-molecular
layers of NAC.
ChemComm Accepted Manuscript
Figure 3 (a) Lateral size of GO obtained by Dynamic Light
Scattering before and after exposure to NAC. All samples have
been sonicated for 6 minutes. (b-d) Atomic Force Microscopy
(AFM) images and height profiles of GO (b,d) and NAC72h
samples (c,e).
Both DLS and AFM results confirm that NAC molecules are
adsorbed onto the rGO surface after the reduction process.
Since NAC is a known free radical scavenger, we tested the
effects of GO and rGO-NAC on glutathione (GSH) with Ellman’s
test according to the method reported in Electronic
Supplementary Information and Figure S4. This test has been
largely employed to quantify the oxidative potential of GO and
other carbon materials and to demonstrate how many
biological effects of GO depend on oxidative stress. Among
different types of graphene-based materials, rGO has the
highest oxidation capacity toward GSH.33,34 We measured a GSH
oxidation of 14% when GO was incubated with GSH for 2 hours.
Conversely, incubation with NAC72h did not cause glutathione
oxidation. As a positive control we used diamide (TMAD) to
obtain strong oxidation of GSH. These data demonstrate that
the presence of NAC adsorbed onto the surface impedes the
GSH loss expected for rGO.33
Figure 4 (a) Quantification of GSH reduction by Ellman’s test
after incubation with GO, NAC72h and TMAD. Digital pictures of
NAC72h soon after preparation (b) or after 14 days of storage
(c).
Furthermore, the presence of strongly adsorbed NAC on rGO
samples is expected to induce further reduction of the
remaining oxygen functionalities if NAC retains its activity.
Digital picture of rGO (NAC72h) soon after preparation (Figure
4b) and after 14 days of storage at room temperature (Figure
4c) shows the formation of aggregates.
In conclusion, we reported a new method for GO reduction
based on incubation with N-acetyl cysteine at room
temperature.
J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 3
 Please doChemComm
not adjust margins
COMMUNICATION
NAC was strongly adsorbed on rGO samples surface and
reduced GSH loss mediated by GO. This opens new
opportunities for in vivo NAC delivery exploiting rGO
biodistribution, including brain tissue and lung targeting. In fact,
it has been demonstrated that rGO can transiently open blood-
brain barrier35, which, combined with NAC ability to treat a
variety of brain injuries36 can represent a promising future
application. On the other hand, GO and rGO tend to accumulate
in lungs37 after in vivo administration. Considering that NAC is a
disulphide breaking agent with mucolytic activity, lung targeting
can be exploited for cystic fibrosis or other pulmonary diseases
treatment.38
This work was supported by Fondazione Umberto Veronesi
(Postdoctoral Fellowships Grant 2018 to V. Palmieri), and
Published on 13 March 2019. Downloaded by East Carolina University on 3/14/2019 8:19:58 AM.
University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Ateneo Grant 2016 n°
RP116154CAAC0238 to A.G. Marrani). EAD is grateful to CSIC
(Comisión Sectorial de Investigación Científica) of the
Universidad de la República, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and
PEDECIBA- Física.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts to declare.
References
1 T. P. Dasari Shareena, D. McShan, A. K. Dasmahapatra and
P. B. Tchounwou, Nano-Micro Lett., 2018, 10, 1–34.
2 J. Liu, L. Cui and D. Losic, Acta Biomater., 2013, 9, 9243–
9257.
3 V. Palmieri, M. Barba, L. Di Pietro, S. Gentilini, M. C.
Braidotti, C. Ciancico, F. Bugli, G. Ciasca, R. Larciprete, W.
Lattanzi, M. Sanguinetti, M. De Spirito, C. Conti and M.
Papi, 2D Mater., , DOI:10.1088/2053-1583/aa9ca7.
4 V. Palmieri, G. Perini, M. De Spirito and M. Papi, Nanoscale
Horizons, 2019, 4, 273 – 290, DOI:10.1039/C8NH00318A.
5 K. K. H. De Silva, H. H. Huang, R. K. Joshi and M. Yoshimura,
Carbon N. Y., 2017, 119, 190–199.
6 I. Elbini Dhouib, M. Jallouli, A. Annabi, N. Gharbi, S. Elfazaa
and M. M. Lasram, Life Sci., 2016, 151, 359–363.
7 M. S. Vida Mokhtari, Parvaneh Afsharian and A. M. Seyed
Mehdi Kalantar, Cell Journal(Yakhteh), 2017, 19, 11–17.
8 R. Maiti, A. Midya, C. Narayana and S. K. Ray,
Nanotechnology, 2014, 25, 495704.
9 Q. Lai, S. Zhu, X. Luo, M. Zou and S. Huang, AIP Adv., 2012,
2, 3–8.
10 H. Shi, C. Wang, Z. Sun, Y. Zhou, K. Jin, S. A. T. Redfern and
G. Yang, Opt. Express, 2014, 22, 19375.
11 M. A. Velasco-Soto, S. A. Pérez-García, J. Alvarez-Quintana,
Y. Cao, L. Nyborg and L. Licea-Jiménez, Carbon N. Y., 2015,
93, 967–973.
12 A. M. Dimiev and S. Eigler, Graphene oxide: fundamentals
and applications, John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
13 M. K. Rabchinskii, A. T. Dideikin, D. A. Kirilenko, M. V.
Baidakova, V. V. Shnitov, F. Roth, S. V. Konyakhin, N. A.
Besedina, S. I. Pavlov, R. A. Kuricyn, N. M. Lebedeva, P. N.
Brunkov and A. Y. Vul’, Sci. Rep., 2018, 8, 1–11.
14 V. H. Pham, T. V. Cuong, T. D. Nguyen-Phan, H. D. Pham, E.
J. Kim, S. H. Hur, E. W. Shin, S. Kim and J. S. Chung, Chem.
Commun., 2010, 46, 4375–4377.
4 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3
Please do not adjust margins
Page 4 of 4
Journal Name
15 Y. Shen, S. Yang, P. Zhou, Q. Sun, P. Wang, L. Wan, J. Li,Online
View Article L.
Chen, X. Wang, S. Ding and D. W. Zhang, Carbon N. Y.,
DOI: 10.1039/C9CC00429G
2013, 62, 157–164.
16 M. V. Narayana and S. N. Jammalamadaka, 2016, 73–80.
17 H. Shi, C. Wang, Z. Sun, Y. Zhou, K. Jin, S. A. T. Redfern and
G. Yang, Opt. Express, 2014, 22, 19375.
18 T. Tsuchiya, K. Terabe and M. Aono, Adv. Mater., 2014, 26,
1087–1091.
19 J. Of, P. Chemistry, A. Mathkar, D. Tozier, P. Cox, P. Ong, C.
Galande, K. Balakrishnan, A. Leela Mohana Reddy and P.
M. Ajayan, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2012, 3, 986–991.
20 M. Papi, M. C. Lauriola, V. Palmieri, G. Ciasca, G. Maulucci
and M. De Spirito, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 81638–81641.
21 K. Krishnamoorthy, M. Veerapandian, K. Yun and S. J. Kim,
ChemComm Accepted Manuscript
Carbon N. Y., 2013, 53, 38–49.
22 S. F. Spanò, G. Isgrò, P. Russo, M. E. Fragalà and G.
Compagnini, Appl. Phys. A, 2014, 117, 19–23.
23 B. Konkena and S. Vasudevan, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2012, 3,
867–872.
24 C.-Y. Lin, C.-E. Cheng, S. Wang, H. W. Shiu, L. Y. Chang, C.-H.
Chen, T.-W. Lin, C.-S. Chang and F. S.-S. Chien, J. Phys.
Chem. C, 2015, 119, 12910–12915.
25 R. Larciprete, P. Lacovig, S. Gardonio, A. Baraldi and S.
Lizzit, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2012, 116, 9900–9908.
26 M. P. Briggs, D.; Seah, Practical Surface Analysis, J. Wiley &
Sons, Chichester, 2nd edn., 1990.
27 A. G. Marrani, A. C. Coico, D. Giacco, R. Zanoni, F. A.
Scaramuzzo, R. Schrebler, D. Dini, M. Bonomo and E. A.
Dalchiele, Appl. Surf. Sci., 2018, 445, 404–414.
28 A. G. Marrani, R. Zanoni, R. Schrebler and E. A. Dalchiele, J.
Phys. Chem. C, 2017, 121, 5675–5683.
29 A. C. Ferrari and J. Robertson, Phys. Rev. B, 2000, 61,
14095–14107.
30 X. Diez-Betriu, S. Alvarez-Garcia, C. Botas, P. Alvarez, J.
Sanchez-Marcos, C. Prieto, R. Menendez and A. de Andres,
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013, 1, 6905–6912.
31 M. Lotya, A. Rakovich, J. F. Donegan and J. N. Coleman,
Nanotechnology, , DOI:10.1088/0957-4484/24/26/265703.
32 V. Palmieri, F. Bugli, M. C. Lauriola, M. Cacaci, R. Torelli, G.
Ciasca, C. Conti, M. Sanguinetti, M. Papi and M. De Spirito,
ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng., 2017, 3, 619–627.
33 S. Liu, T. H. Zeng, M. Hofmann, E. Burcombe, J. Wei, R.
Jiang, J. Kong and Y. Chen, ACS Nano, 2011, 5, 6971–6980.
34 F. Perreault, A. F. De Faria, S. Nejati and M. Elimelech, ACS
Nano, 2015, 9, 7226–7236.
35 M. C. P. Mendonça, E. S. Soares, M. B. de Jesus, H. J.
Ceragioli, M. S. Ferreira, R. R. Catharino and M. A. da Cruz-
Höfling, J. Nanobiotechnology, 2015, 13, 1–13.
36 R. Bavarsad Shahripour, M. R. Harrigan and A. V.
Alexandrov, Brain Behav., 2014, 4, 108–122.
37 M. Ema, M. Gamo and K. Honda, Regul. Toxicol.
Pharmacol., 2017, 85, 7–24.
38 G. Aldini, A. Altomare, G. Baron, G. Vistoli, M. Carini, L.
Borsani and F. Sergio, Free Radic. Res., 2018, 52, 751–762.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx