Layered bismuth oxyhalide nanomaterials for highly efficient tumor photodynamic therapy

Layered bismuth oxyhalide nanomaterials have received much more interest as promising photocatalysts because of their unique layered structures and high photocatalytic performance, which can be used as potential inorganic photosensitizers in tumor photodynamic therapy (PDT). In recent years, photocatalytic materials have been widely used in PDT and photothermal therapy (PTT) as inorganic photosensitizers. This investigation focuses on applying layered bismuth oxyhalide nanomaterials toward cancer PDT, an application that has never been reported so far. The results of our study indicate that the efficiency of UV-triggered PDT was highest when using BiOCl nanoplates followed by BiOCl nanosheets, and then TiO2. Of particular interest is the fact that layered BiOCl nanomaterials showed excellent PDT effects under low nanomaterial dose (20 μg mL−1) and low UV dose (2.2 mW cm−2 for 10 min) conditions, while TiO2 showed almost no therapeutic effect under the same parameters. BiOCl nanoplates and nanosheets have shown excellent performance and an extensive range of applications in PDT.