Functional black phosphorus nanosheets for cancer therapy

Black phosphorus nanosheets (BP NSs), a kind of attractive two-dimensional materials, have been widely used in optoelectronics, transistors and photocatalysis. Recently, growing interest has been attracted to explore the application of BP NSs for cancer therapy in view of their unique properties. BP NSs have high surface area and negative charge, which can load drug, targeting molecules, photosensitizer, magnetic nanoparticles etc. They are also potential candidates for cancer phototherapy including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) by virtue of extensive near-infrared absorbance. Furthermore, BP NSs exhibit biodegradable and compatible nature to avoid toxicity in vivo. In this review, the preparation and properties of BP NSs are firstly summarized. More importantly, multifunctional platform based on BP NSs for cancer therapy such as photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, antibacterial therapy, chemo-/photothermal combined therapy, photothermal/gene- combined therapy, chemo-/photothermal/gene- combined therapy and chemo-/photothermal/photodynamic combined therapy is reviewed in detail. And the future perspectives of BP NSs is finally discussed.