Recent Development of Photothermal Agents (PTAs) Based on Small Organic Molecular Dyes

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT) has attracted great attention due to its non‐invasive and effective cancer therapy. Various photothermal agents (PTAs) including organic PTAs and inorganic PTAs have been developed in the last decades. Organic PTAs based on small molecular dyes exhibit great potential in future clinical applications considering their good biocompatibility and easy chemical modification or functionalization. In this review, we discuss the recent progress of organic PTAs based on small molecular dyes for enhanced PTT. We summary the strategies to improve the light penetration of PTAs, methods to enhance the photothermal conversion efficiency, how to optimize the PTAs delivery into deep tumors, and how to resist photobleaching under repeated laser irradiation. We hope this review can arise the interest of the researchers into the field of PTAs based on small molecular dyes and fabricate next‐generation PTAs for non‐invasive cancer therapy.