BeO nanotube as a promising material for anticancer drugs delivery system

Abstract

In this research, the application of BeO nanotube (BeONT) as a nanocarrier for Fluorouracil (5-FU) anticancer drug has been studied by density functional theory (DFT) approach. The method ωB97XD with 6-31 G** basis set were employed. A precise surface study, shows that there are two directions for 5-FU adsorption that did not deliver any of the imaginary frequency vibrational spectra, identifying that all relaxation structures are at the lowest energy level. Based on our calculations, the energy of adsorption for 5FU@BeONT structures are range −120 to −168 kJ/mol, in the gas phase and −395 to 4-00 kJ/mol in the aqueous phase. The highest and the lowest values of adsorption energy are both in strong physical adsorption. Due to receiving an electronic charge from 5-FU, BeONT exhibited a p-type semiconducting feature for all positions. In addition, based on natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, the direction of charge transfer was from fluorine’s σ orbitals of the drug to n* orbitals (O and Be atoms) of BeONT with a considerable amount of transferred energy. BeONT can be employed as a potential strong carrier for 5-FU drugs for practical purposes based on our findings.

Keywords:

• BeO nanotube
• anticancer drug
• fluorouracil
• physical adsorption

Author contributions statement

M.M. Kadhim: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing, Conceptualization, Methodology, Management and responsibility for the research activity planning and execution; T. S. Alomar, S. A.H. Abdullaha, S.K. Hachim,: Methodology, Software, Writing - review & editing; N. AlMasoud, Z.T. Taban: Writing - original draft, Methodology, Software, review & editing.

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.