Significant Enhancement of Photothermal and Photoacoustic Efficiencies for Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles through Simply Molecular Engineering. (18th April 2018) - Dong, Tao
Abstract: Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SP NPs) are employed as efficient nanoagents for "all‐in‐one" theranostic nanoplatforms with dual photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and photothermal therapy (PTT) functions based on their photothermal conversion effect. However, the mechanisms of tuning the PTT efficiency are still elusive, though several SP NPs with high photothermal efficiency are reported. Herein, two donor–acceptor (D–A) SP NPsPTIGSVS andPIIGSVS with the same donor unit but different acceptor units are designed and synthesized. Through tuning the acceptor unit, PTIGSVS shows more planar backbone structure, stronger D–A strength, redshifted absorption, enhanced extinction efficient, weakened emission properties, and more efficient nonradiative decay in comparison to the polymeric analoguePIIGSVS . Thus, PTIGSVS NPs present much higher photothermal conversion efficiencies (74%) thanPIIGSVS NPs (11%), resulting in significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo PAI and PTT performance. This contribution demonstrates thatPTIGSVS NPs are superior PA/PTT agents for effective cancer theranostic and shed light on understanding the relationship between molecular structures and photothermal effect of CPs. Abstract : Two polymers PTIGSVS and PIIGSVS with the same donor but different acceptor units are designed and synthesized. PTIGSVS nanoparticles (NPs) present much higher photothermal conversion efficiencies than PIIGSVS NPs. Thus, PTIGSVS NPs exhibit superior in vitro and in vivo photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy (PAI/PTT) performance. This work demonstrates a clear strategy for designing high‐performing polymer NPs for PAI/PTT.