Near‐Infrared Organic Small‐Molecule Photosensitizer With O2 Self‐Supply for Cancer Photodynamic‐Photothermal Synergistic Therapy

Tumor hypoxia and heat resistance as well as the light penetration deficiency severely compromise the phototherapeutic efficacy, developing phototherapeutic agents to overcome these issues has been sought-after goal. Herein, a diradical-featured organic small-molecule semiconductor, namely TTD-CN, has been designed to show low exciton binding energy of 42 meV by unique dimeric π-π aggregation, promoting near-infrared (NIR) absorption beyond 808 nm and effective photo-induced charge separation. More interestingly, its redox potentials are tactfully manipulated for water splitting to produce O