Abstract

Fabrication of hollow or bowl-like materials using gas bubbles as templates is an attractive technique. However, it is challenging to develop simple and mild methods that produce nanosized and homogeneous gas bubble templates. Herein, excess air could outgas in the form of bubbles by mixing water and water-soluble solvents in the proper proportion. And polydopamine (PDA) nanobowls are fabricated using these bubble templates. Furthermore, Mn(CO) 5 Br (COMn, gas fuel generator) is loaded on PDA nanobowls to form a nanomotor to carry zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc, photosensitive drug) (denoted PCZN), which can migrate efficiently in cancer cells. Singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ), the primary cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) in photodynamic therapy (PDT), has an extremely short lifetime (<0.04 µs) and action radius (<20 nm), which limits its influence range to strictly around its production site. The movement of PCZNs can enlarge the ZnPc diffusion range, expand the 1 O 2 reach, and improve the PDT activity. In addition, PCZNs have multiple functions, including tumor vasodilatation to promote nanomedicine accumulation, tumor hypoxia relief to supply O 2 for PDT, photothermal therapy (PTT) for synergistic treatment and multimodal imaging to ensure the theranostic outcome.