Multifunctional carbon dot/MXene heterojunctions for alleviation of tumor hypoxia and enhanced sonodynamic therapy. (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Geng, Bijiang; Xu, Shuang; Shen, Longxiang; Fang, Fuling; Shi, Wenyan; Pan, Dengyu
• Is Part Of: Carbon. Volume 179(2021)
• Page Start: 493
• Page End: 504
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: Ti3C2 Mxene -- Carbon dots -- Heterojunctions -- Sonodynamic therapy -- Tumor microenvironment; Carbon -- Periodicals; Carbone -- Périodiques; Koolstof; Toepassingen; Electronic journals; 546.681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2021.04.070
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-6223

Abstract

Abstract: TiO2 -based semiconductor nanosonosensitizers have been extensively explored for sonodynamic therapy (SDT) against deep-seated tumors, but their clinical applications are limited by low reactive oxygen species (ROS) quantum yields owing to their rather wide bandgaps (∼3.2 eV). Herein, we report Ti3 C2 -based two-dimensional (2D) MXene nanosheets with a bandgap of only ∼0.94 eV, induced by surface terminations (-F, –OH), were employed as a novel narrow-bandgap nanosonosensitizer for effective SDT. To improve the stability and SDT performance of the MXene nanosheets, 0D/2D hybrid heterojunctions (HJs) were also introduced between Ti3 C2 nanosheets and graphitic N doped carbon dots. Taking the advantage of the HJ-enhanced carrier transfers, the designed CD@Ti3 C2 Tx HJs exhibited a remarkably enhanced ROS generation efficiency, which was 3.07 times than that of commercial TiO2 nanoparticles. The CD@Ti3 C2 Tx HJs were also found to offer enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency in the NIR-II biowindow (64.5%). By using the mild photothermal effect to alleviate tumor hypoxia in the "cold" tumor microenvironment (TME), complete tumor ablation was realized by the mild NIR-II PTT-enhanced deep-tissue SDT. This work presents the promising potential of MXene-based 2D materials for noninvasive SDT of deep-seated tumors. Graphical abstract: Overall scheme to show the main synthesis procedures of CD@Ti3 C2 Tx HJs and their applications for mild PTT-enhanced SDT. Image 1