Carbon Quantum Dots Embedded Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Fluorescent Imaging-guided Combined Tumor Therapy

Abstract

Metal-free carbon-based nanomaterials hold great potential for imaging-guided cancer therapy. In this work, we synthesized carbon quantum dots embedded graphitic carbon nitride nanofibers (GCN-CQD) via a facile one-pot solvothermal approach for fluorescent imaging and combined cancer therapy. Embedded CQDs impact excitation-dependent-tunable and upconverted fluorescence to the nanofibers, establishing them as robust optical contrast agents suitable for multicolor confocal imaging. Within the tumor microenvironment (TME), GCN-CQD could catalyze hydrogen peroxide decomposition to generate hydroxyl radical (·OH) enabling chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Furthermore, GCN-CQD efficiently adsorb near-infrared (NIR) light, converting it locally into heat for photothermal therapy (PTT) while simultaneously generating singlet oxygen (1O2) to drive photodynamic therapy (PDT), collectively inducing cells death. This work offers novel perspectives for developing multimodal combination therapy approaches utilizing metal-free carbon-based nanoplatforms.