In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, global pharmaceutical companies have developed vaccines for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Some have adopted lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) or viral vectors to deliver the genes associated with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 for vaccination. This strategy of vaccination by delivering genes to express viral proteins has been successfully applied to the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, and is also applicable to gene therapy. However, conventional transfection agents such as LNPs and viral vectors are not yet sufficient to satisfy the levels of safety, stability, and efficiency required for the clinical applications of gene therapy. In this study, we synthesized N-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) for the transfection of various genes, including messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNAs) and plasmid deoxyribonucleic acids (pDNAs). The positively charged NGQDs successfully formed electrostatic complexes with negatively charged mRNAs and pDNAs, and resulted in the efficient delivery and transfection of the genes into target cells. The transfection efficiency of NGQDs is found to be comparable to that of commercially available LNPs. Considering their outstanding stability even at room temperature as well as their low toxicity, NGQDs are expected to be novel universal gene delivery platforms that can outperform LNPs and viral vectors.

As a smart stimulus-responsive material, hydrogel has been investigated extensively in many research fields. However, its mechanical brittleness and low strength have mattered, and conventional photoinitiators used during the polymerization steps exhibit high toxicity, which limits the use of hydrogels in the field of biomedical applications. Here, we address the dual functions of graphene quantum dots (GQDs), one to trigger the synthesis of hydrogel as photoinitiators and the other to improve the mechanical strength of the as-synthesized hydrogel. GQDs embedded in the network effectively generated radicals when exposed to sunlight, leading to the initiation of polymerization, and also played a significant role in improving the mechanical strength of the crosslinked chains. Thus, we expect that the resulting hydrogel incorporated with GQDs would enable a wide range of applications that require biocompatibility as well as higher mechanical strength, including novel hydrogel contact lenses and bioscaffolds for tissue engineering.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are proposed as potential broad-spectrum antiviral agents as their amphiphilic properties could destroy viral membranes, regardless of the type of viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus.

Area-selection reactions have been extensively investigated to control or change physicochemical properties of substances with micro- or nanoscale precision. Several polymeric materials called photoresists have been used to mask and pattern the specific region, which can block chemical reactions or deposition. However, they are not suitable for certain chemical reaction since they are vulnerable to high temperature. Here, we report the graphene mask to achieve area-selective chalcogenization, which is performed at high temperature by chemical vapor deposition method. Due to its physicochemical properties, graphene does not allow chalcogen precursor gases to penetrate into metal films. Several characterizations are performed to prove the successful sulfurization and selenization of molybdenum and tungsten films. As an application, WS₂ field-effect transistors with graphene mask are fabricated, and they show the typical characteristics of transistors successfully. Therefore, we expect that graphene-assisted area-selective reaction can be utilized for various fields such as semiconductors, sensors, and etc.