Hollow Polypyrrole Nanospindles for Highly Effective Cancer Therapy

Graphical Ready to load : Hollow polypyrrole nanospindles were fabricated with MIL-88(Fe) serving as both the template and oxidizing agent for the polymerization, and water acting as the etching agent. The resulting hollow nanostructures showed excellent photothermal and drug-loading capabilities and significant anticancer effects in vivo. Polypyrrole (PPy) hollow nanostructures continue to attract the interest researchers because of their good biocompatibility, high photothermal conversion efficiency, and excellent stability. The preparation of PPy hollow nanostructures by the hard templating method without complicated post-synthetic treatment and additional oxidizing agents remains a challenge. In this work, we report a facile and novel hard templating method to fabricate hollow PPy nanospindles in which MIL-88(Fe) serves as the template. Fe 3+ centers in MIL-88(Fe) could induce the polymerization of pyrrole to construct the shell, and MIL-88(Fe) would be decomposed by solvent water. This method did not require any extra oxidizing agents and post-synthetic treatment. Hollow PPy nanospindles exhibit excellent photothermal and drug loading ability, and the therapy effect of cancer was significant. This method provides a new hard templating approach for the synthesis of polymer hollow nanostructures.