Temperature-correlated afterglow of a semiconducting polymer nanococktail for imaging-guided photothermal therapy

• Main Authors: Zhen, Xu, Xie, Chen, Pu, Kanyi
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Semiconducting Polymer Nanococktail; Afterglow
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88488; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44641
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Nanoparticles for photothermal therapy: Real‐time temperature monitoring is critical to reduce the nonspecific damage during photothermal therapy (PTT); however, PTT agents that can emit temperature‐related signals are rare and limited to few inorganic nanoparticles. We herein synthesize a semiconducting polymer nanococktail (SPNCT) that can not only convert photo‐energy to heat but also emit temperature‐correlated luminescence after cessation of light excitation. Such an afterglow luminescence of the SPNCT detects tumors more sensitively than fluorescence as a result of the elimination of tissue autofluorescence, while its temperature‐dependent nature allows tumor temperature to be optically monitored under near‐infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. Thus, SPNCT represents the first organic optical nanosystem that enables optical‐imaging guided PTT without real‐time light excitation.