Nanoheterojunction Engineering Enables NIR-II-Triggered Photonic Hyperthermia and Pyroelectric Catalysis for Tumor-Synergistic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) as a non-invasive strategy shows high promise in cancer treatment. However, owing to the hypoxic tumor microenvironment and light irradiation-mediated rapid electron–hole pair recombination, the therapeutic efficacy of PDT is dramatically discounted by limited reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Herein, a multifunctional theranostic nanoheterojunction is rationally developed, in which 2D niobium carbide (Nb₂C) MXene is in situ grown with barium titanate (BTO) to generate a robust photo-pyroelectric catalyst, termed as BTO@Nb₂C nanosheets, for enhanced ROS production, originating from the effective electron–hole pair separation induced by the pyroelectric effect. Under the second near-infrared (NIR-II) laser irradiation, Nb₂C MXene core-mediated photonic hyperthermia regulates temperature variation around BTO shells facilitating the electron–hole spatial separation, which reacts with the surrounding O₂ and H₂O molecules to yield toxic ROS, achieving a synergetic effect by means of combinaterial photothermal therapy with pyrocatalytic therapy. Correspondingly, the engineered BTO@Nb₂C composite nanosheets feature benign biocompatibility and high antitumor efficiency with the tumor-inhibition rate of 94.9% in vivo, which can be applied as an imaging-guided real-time non-invasive synergetic dual-mode therapeutic nanomedicine for efficient tumor nanotherapy.