Mesoporous carbon hemispheres integrated with Fe–Gd nanoparticles for potential MR/PA imaging-guided photothermal therapy

Asymmetric carbon has emerged as an important material to enrich morphologies as well as enhance functions for bioapplications. Here, asymmetric mesoporous carbon hemispheres (CHS) integrated with γ-Fe2O3 and GdPO4 (Fe–Gd) nanoparticles are proposed and prepared for potential imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT). Interestingly, Fe–Gd/CHS contributes to an almost 1.5 times enhancement in light harvesting and photothermal conversion efficiency as compared with its corresponding spherical analogue. The possible underlying mechanism is discussed in view of the unique asymmetric structure-featured carbon. Further identification of the inherited photoacoustic (PA) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging properties leads to the consequent in vivo evaluation of its imaging and PTT performances, which demonstrates its capability as a function-integrated system for potential theranostics.