Figure 4.

Combined effects of the AC pulse and WS₂/PEG nanostructure on ablating cancer cells. (a,b) Relative viability of the MCF-10A and MCF-7 cells after incubation with (a) pure WS₂ and (b) WS₂/PEG nanostructures for 24 h. The statistical significance of relative cell viabilities can be found in Supporting Information Table S2. (c) Relative viability of the MCF-10A and MCF-7 cells after incubation with WS₂/PEG nanostructures for 24 h and upon applying bias pulses. The control is defined as cells only after the application of bias pulses. Cell viability measurement was performed using the CV staining assay for (a–c), and the error bars represent SEM from three independent experiments (n = 6). Statistical significance was calculated based on the Student’s t-test and is indicated as ** (p < 0.01) and *** (p < 0.001). (d) Comparison of the percentage decrease in cell viability of the MCF-7 cells with WS₂/PEG with that of the state-of-the-art electrothermal-based therapeutic system using similar energy densities. The information of the reference can be found in Supporting Information Table S3.