Surface adsorption of nitrosourea on pristine and doped (Al, Ga and In) boron nitride nanosheets as anticancer drug carriers: the DFT and COSMO insights

To minimize the side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs and enhance the effectiveness of cancer treatment, it is necessary to find a suitable drug delivery carrier for anticancer drugs. Recently nanomaterials are extensively being studied as drug vehicles and transport drugs in tumor cells. Using DFT calculations, the adsorption behavior with electronic sensitivity and reactivity of pristine and doped (Al, Ga and In)-BNNS towards the nitrosourea (NU) drug has been investigated in gas as well as water media. Our calculations showed that the NU drug is physically adsorbed on the pristine BNNS with −0.49 and −0.26 eV by transferring little amount of charge of about 0.033e and 0.046e in gas and water media in the most stable complex. But after replacing one of the central B atoms with an Al or Ga or In atom, the sensitivity of the doped BNNS remarkably enhances towards the NU drug molecules. The NU drug prefers to be chemically adsorbed on the BN(Al)NS, BN(Ga)NS and BN(In)NS by −1.28, −1.58 and −3.06 eV in the gas phase and −1.34, −1.23 and −3.65 eV in water media in the most stable complexes respectively. The large destabilization of LUMO energies after the adsorption of the NU drug on the BN(Al)NS, BN(Ga)NS and BN(In)NS significantly reduces their E(g) from 4.37 to 0.69, 4.37 to 1.04 and 4.33 to 0.66 eV in the S1 complex respectively. The reduction of E(g) of doped BNNS by the NU drug greatly enhances the electrical conductivity which can be converted to an electrical signal. Therefore, this doped BNNS can be used as a fascinating electronic sensor for the detection of NU drug molecules. Furthermore the work function of the doped BNNS was largely affected by the NU drug adsorption about 47.3%, 39.3% and 40.4% in the gas phase and 41.3%, 36.6% and 31.6% in water media in the S1 complex of NU/BN(Al)NS, NU/BN(Ga)NS and NU/BN(In)NS respectively. Thus, the doped BNNS may be used as a Ф type sensor for NU drug molecules.