Anticancer Activity of TiO₂/Au Nanocomposite Prepared by Laser Ablation Technique on Breast and Cervical Cancers

This work reports the synthesis of TiO₂ nanowires (NWs) decorated with Au nanoparticles (NPs) by pulsed laser ablation technique for anticancer applications. Various analytical techniques were employed to characterize the fabricated samples including field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), UV–Vis spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL). The FESEM images confirm the anchoring of Au NPs on the surfaces of the TiO₂ NWs. The anticancer activity of pristine TiO₂ NWs, Au NPs, and TiO₂-Au nanocomposite were evaluated on cervical (HELA) and breast (MCF7) cancer cell lines using MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide) method. The results show that the decoration of TiO₂ NWS with Au NPs significantly enhanced the anticancer activities against MCF7 and HELA cancer cells with an improvement of 43% and 41 %, respectively. Thus, TiO₂-Au nanocomposite prepared using pulsed laser ablation could potentially be used to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells.