A Facile Synthesis of Alkaline Electrolyte Based Graphene Sheets, Their Functionalization and Attachment of Some Drugs

High-quality graphene is highly enviable material due to its seminal role amongst several areas in modern technology including its role as nanocarrier for site selective drug grafting and delivery applications. Here, we report a facile, cost-effective and single-step method to produce high-quality graphene through customised electrochemical exfoliation of graphite anode in alkaline electrolyte medium. The quality of graphene sheets (GS) were investigated by Raman, TEM/HRTEM, AFM, and FTIR techniques. The high quality as well as excellent Π–Π stacking nature of the honeycomb lattice of graphene was confirmed by measuring the quenching capability through photo-luminescence spectroscopy using organic dyes. A plausible mechanism for the graphite exfoliation has been given where evolution of high density of oxygen molecules exerts large force on the graphitic layers leads to exfoliation and consequent synthesis of graphene. Furthermore, to explore the application of the graphene sheets so synthesized, we carried out studies which may make them as suitable carriers for drug delivery. For this, graphene sheets were functionalized with L-cysteine and attached with the drugs Amphotericin-B (AmB) and Tamoxifen citrate (TMX). The conjugation of drugs with L-cysteine functionalized graphene has been confirmed through FTIR and Raman spectroscopic techniques. The drug loading efficiency of FGS for AmB and TMX was 75.00% and 94.31%, respectively. The present formulation of drugs (AmB and TMX) conjugated with graphene is suitable for the targeted drug delivery as it will enhance the efficacy and reduce cytotoxicity associated with drug.