Molten salt synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon nanoparticles for enhanced type-I photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy has received widespread attention in antitumor application. However, the tumor hypoxia microenvironment seriously suppresses the treatment efficiency, especially for oxygen-dependent type-II systems. Herein, novel nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (CN NPs) with photocatalytic ˙OH generation and great biocompatibility are synthesized in a low temparature molten salt. Due to the carbon-based nature, the CN NPs exhibit excellent hemocompatibility. Moreover, in vitro evaluations under normoxia and hypoxia conditions and in vivo experiments all demonstrate that the CN NPs possess high-efficiency type-I ROS generation ability, suggesting that the proposed CN NPs have great potential for type-I hypoxia tumor treatment.