Black Phosphorus Nanosheet Encapsulated by Zeolitic Imidazole Framework-8 for Tumor Multimodal Treatments

Black phosphorus (BP) nanosheet is easily oxidized by oxygen and water under ambient environment, thus, reliable BP passivation techniques for biomedical applications is urgently needed. A simple and applicable passivation strategy for biomedical applications was established by encapsulating BP nanosheet into zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8). The resulted BP nanosheet in ZIF-8 (BP@ZIF-8) shows not only satisfied chemical stability in both water and phosphate buffered saline (PBS), but also excellent biocompatibility. Notably, BP nanosheet endows the prepared BP@ZIF-8 with prominent photothermal conversion efficiency (31.90%). Besides passivation BP, ZIF-8 provides the BP@ZIF-8 with high drug loading amount (1353.3 mg g(-1)). Moreover, the loaded drug can be controlled release by pH stimuli. Both in vitro and in vivo researches verified the resulted BP@ZIF-8 an ideal candidate for tumor multimodal treatments.

Automated summary

By encapsulating black phosphorus (BP) nanosheet into zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8), a simple and applicable passivation strategy for biomedical applications was established, resulting in enhanced chemical stability, biocompatibility, photothermal conversion efficiency, and drug loading amount. The prepared BP@ZIF-8 showed controlled drug release by pH stimuli and proved to be an ideal candidate for tumor multimodal treatments through in vitro and in vivo studies.