Nanoconfined heterojunctions with enhanced piezoelectricity for amplifying reactive oxygen species storms-triggered tumor ferroptosis-like/apoptosis

Poor separation and rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs hinder the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation efficiency of sonosensitizers and hampers the efficacy of tumor therapy. To overcome these obstacles, the nanoconfinement-enhanced strategy was proposed to construct polyvinylpyrrolidone-modified ZnO 2 nanomedicines loaded with IrO 2 (IZH) for piezoelectric therapy. Nanoconfinement activates IrO 2 nanoclusters for carrier separation, and the ultrasound current density of IZH (29.4 nA cm −2 ) is 2.9 times that of ZnO 2 (10.3 nA cm −2 ) under the ultrasound irradiation. In addition, the internal electric field between IrO 2 and ZnO 2 accelerates electron directed migration under ultrasound. Interestingly, this strategy augmented ROS generation induces ferroptosis-like/apoptosis with the tumor inhibition rate of 90 %. This study provides an promising nanoplatform to trigger efficient carrier separation for enhancing ROS generation through an iridium-based nanoconfinement piezoelectric sonosensitizer on ferroptosis-like and apoptosis, providing new guidance for exploring candidates for piezoelectric therapy.