Gold Nanoparticle-Decorated g-C₃N₄ Nanosheets for Controlled Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species upon 670 nm Laser Illumination

Abstract

Conventional photosensitizer-based photodynamic therapy is triggered by UV-light irradiation and depends on oxygen. However, it is hard to be applied to the deep and hypoxic tumor. To address this issue, we reported a new kind of g-C₃N₄ nanosheet decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which could generate a high amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under a 670 nm laser irradiation in an oxygen-free environment. This synthesized semiconductor-metal heterojunction served as a superior photodynamic agent, showing prominent cancer cell-killing and tumor growth-suppressing effects in the presence of a 670 nm light and g-C₃N₄-AuNP composites, and its excellent ROS generation property was also validated by further bactericidal experiment.