Unveiling the Adsorption and Electronic Interactions of Drugs on 2D Graphsene: Insights from DFT and Machine Learning Approach

TL;DR

This study combines density functional theory and machine learning to analyze drug adsorption on a novel 2D graphene allotrope called Graphsene, providing insights into interactions for drug delivery applications.

Contribution

It introduces a combined DFT and ML framework to predict drug-graphsene interactions, demonstrating a rapid screening method for nanomaterial-based drug delivery systems.

Findings

ML model achieved 0.075 eV MAE in predictions

DFT revealed significant charge transfer and electronic coupling

Framework enables efficient screening of drug candidates

Abstract

Efficient identification of promising drug candidates for nanomaterial-based delivery systems is essential for advancing next-generation therapeutics. In this work, we present a synergistic framework combining density functional theory (DFT) and machine learning (ML) to explore the adsorption behavior and electronic interactions of drugs on a novel 2D graphene allotrope, termed Graphsene (GrS). Graphsene, characterized by its porous ring topology and large surface area, offers an excellent platform for efficient adsorption and strong electronic coupling with drug molecules. A dataset comprising 67 drugs adsorbed on various 2D substrates was employed to train the ML model, which was subsequently applied to predict suitable drug candidates for GrS based on molecular size and adsorption energy criteria (database link provided in a later section). The ML model exhibited robust predictive accuracy, achieving a mean absolute error of 0.075 eV upon DFT validation, though its sensitivity to initialization highlighted the need for larger and more diverse datasets. DFT-based analyses, including adsorption energetics, projected density of states (PDOS), and Bader charge calculations, revealed pronounced charge transfer and electronic coupling between the drug molecules and the GrS surface, elucidating the fundamental nature of drug-substrate interactions. The study reveals that the integrated DFT-ML strategy offers a rapid, cost-efficient approach for screening and understanding drug-nanomaterial interactions, paving the way for data-driven design of advanced nanomaterial-enabled drug delivery systems.