Defective Porous Carbon Polyhedra Decorated with Copper Nanoparticles for Enhanced NIR-Driven Photothermal Cancer Therapy

Herein, a series of novel photothermal agents, comprising copper nanoparticles supported on defective porous carbon polyhedra are successfully prepared by heating a Cu-BTC metal–organic framework (MOF) precursor at different temperatures (t) in the range 400–900 °C under an argon atmosphere.

The copper nanoparticle size and carbon defect concentration in the obtained products (denoted herein as Cu@CPP-t) increase with synthesis temperature, thus imparting the Cu@CPP-t samples with distinct NIR absorption properties and photothermal heating responses. The Cu@CPP-800 sample shows a remarkable photothermal conversion efficiency of 48.5% under 808 nm laser irradiation, representing one of the highest photothermal efficiencies yet reported for a carbon-based photothermal agent.