Programmable Intermolecular Charge-Transfer Complexes for Photothermal Cancer Therapy

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a promising tumor treatment strategy. However, developing organic photothermal agents (PTAs) with both high photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) and simple synthesis remains a major challenge. Herein, we developed the charge-transfer complex nanoparticles (termed PER-TCQ), via supramolecular assembly of perylene (PER) as the electron donor and tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone (TCQ) as the electron acceptor. The strong charge-transfer interaction between PER and TCQ confers PER-TCQ nanoparticles with pronounced near-infrared (NIR) absorption. Upon 808 nm laser irradiation, PER-TCQ achieved a high PCE of 66.1%. Its effective antitumor efficacy was consistently validated by in vitro and in vivo experiments, demonstrating the great promise of such programmable complexes as high-performance organic PTAs.