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A novel core–shell nanostructure, hollow copper sulfide nanosphere–doxorubicin (DOX)/graphene oxide (GO) (CuS–DOX/GO), is constructed for the purpose of controlled drug delivery and improved photothermo-chemotherapeutic effect. The CuS–DOX/GO nanocomposite is configured by employing dual photothermal agents, where the core, hollow CuS nanoparticle, acts as delivery-carrier for doxorubicin, and the shell, PEGylated GO nanosheet, prohibits leakage of the drug. DOX can be efficiently loaded onto the hollow CuS nanoparticles, and its subsequent release from CuS–DOX/GO nanocomposite is triggered in a pH- and near-infrared light-dependent manner. Moreover, integration of the two photothermal agents significantly improves the photothermal performance of this system. Ultimately, the combination of phototherapy and chemotherapy based on this system results in a much higher HeLa cell killing efficacy with respect to that for a single chemotherapy mode, as demonstrated by in vitro cytotoxicity tests.

Tunable fluorescent emission and applications in both in vitro and in vivo imaging of hydrophobic carbon nanodots (CNDs) with rapid penetration capability are reported. The hydrophobic CNDs are prepared via hydrothermal treatment of ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide and exhibit excitation-dependent photoluminescence behavior along with a red-shift in the excitation/emission maxima with concentration. The quantum yields of the as-prepared CNDs are in the range of 2.5–4.8% at an excitation wavelength of 300–600 nm. The rapid penetration behavior (within 1 min) of CNDs into the cell membrane significantly reduces the sample treatment time and avoids potential fluorescence quenching induced by the interaction between CNDs and samples. A co-location study reveals that the hydrophobic CNDs are distributed mainly in the lysosome. The potentials of the hydrophobic CNDs as fluorescent probe in in vitro and in vivo imaging are well demonstrated by the labeling of HeLa cells, MCF-7 cells, A549 cells, and Kunming mice.

A novel zwitterionic polymer ionic liquid functionalized magnetic nanospheres, shortly as Fe3O4@PCL-PILs, is synthesized by grafting ionic liquid VimCOOHBr onto polymer ε-caprolactone (PCL) modified magnetic nanospheres via esterification and surface-initiated free radical polymerization. This established synthesis strategy offers the obtained magnetic nanospheres with well-defined core–corona structure, compact grafting layer, favorable zwitterionic and negative-charged surface, and high magnetic susceptibility. The as-prepared Fe3O4@PCL-PILs nanospheres exhibit typical “zwitterionic hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (ZIC-HILIC)” behaviors toward protein binding, and selectively adsorption of glycoprotein is achieved. The adsorption capacity of the magnetic nanospheres toward Immunoglobulin G is high up to 1136.4 mg g–1, and the captured Immunoglobulin G could be efficiently recovered by using 0.5% NH3H2O (v/v) as stripping reagent, providing a recovery of 80.5%. Fe3O4@PCL-PILs nanospheres are then employed as sorbent for the selective isolation of Immunoglobulin G from human whole blood, obtaining high-purity Immunoglobulin G as demonstrated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis assays.