Preparation of Dye Molecule‐Intercalated MoO3 Organic/Inorganic Superlattice Nanoparticles for Fluorescence Imaging‐Guided Catalytic Therapy

Abstract Intercalation of organic molecules into the van der Waals gaps of layered materials allows for the preparation of organic/inorganic superlattices for varying promising applications. Herein, the preparation of a series of dye molecule/MoO 3 organic/inorganic superlattice nanoparticles by aqueous intercalation of several dye molecules into layered MoO 3 for fluorescence imaging‐guided catalytic therapy is reported. The long MoO 3 nanobelts are treated by ball milling and subsequent aqueous intercalation followed by a cation ion exchange to obtain the dye molecule‐intercalated MoO 3 organic/inorganic superlattices. Importantly, because of the activation induced by organic intercalation, the Nile blue (NB)‐intercalated MoO 3‐ x (NB‐MoO 3‐ x ) nanoparticles show excellent catalytic activity for the generation of reactive oxygen species, that is, hydroxyl radical (·OH) and superoxide anion (·O 2 − ), through catalyzing H 2 O 2 and O 2 , respectively. Moreover, the intense fluorescence of the intercalated NB molecules endows NB‐MoO 3‐ x with the in vivo fluorescence imaging capability. Thus, the polyvinylpyrrolidone‐modified NB‐MoO 3‐ x nanoparticles can be used for tumor‐specific catalytic therapy to realize efficient cancer cell elimination in vitro and fluorescence imaging‐guided tumor ablation in vivo.