The cancer cells viability of control groups (Sn
4+ with/without LED, Sn nanocluster@CDs without LED) showed a negligible decrease. On contrary, after irradiated for 12 min under LED, red fluorescence appeared in Sn nanocluster@CDs stained cells, which was stronger than that of Sn
4+ stained cells and the Sn nanocluster@CDs stained cells without LED. Seen from the merged images, PI fluorescence occupied most of the cells, meaning that the growth of HepG2 cells can be inhibited by Sn nanocluster@CDs under LED light irradiation.
In vitro PDT illustrates that Sn
4+ did harm to CHO cells with/without light (Fig. S8a in Supporting information), while the Sn nanocluster@CDs were less harmful in the dark (Fig. S8b in Supporting information). Furthermore, after irradiation by the LED, the CHO cells died of the generated
1O
2, which is consistent with the ESR and
1O
2 generation test result. As shown in Fig. S9a (Supporting information), the 4T1 cell containing Sn
4+ cannot grow healthily because of its high toxicity. Phototoxicity of Sn nanocluster@CDs can be clearly distinguished from Fig. S9b (Supporting information); under the irradiation of LED light, the Sn nanocluster@CDs efficiently induced the lower cell viability of the 4T1 cells, while the control group (in the dark) led to decline of the 4T1 cells. The phototherapeutic effect of Sn
4+ and Sn nanocluster@CDs on cell survival was directly visualized
via fluorescence microscopy. However, due to its high
1O
2 generation yield, low cytotoxicity, enhanced luminescence, and water solubility, the sample of Sn nanocluster@CDs is highly expected to be applied
in vivo. In the animal experiments, the 4T1 tumor sizes were recorded. Tumor sizes were calculated with the Eq. S2 (Supporting information) [
39], and photographed (
Fig. 5a) every two days during the 14-day treatments. Female Balb/c mice (SPF level), 4−6-week-old and 21 g were obtained from the Animal experiment center of Anhui Medical University (Hefei, China) with an Animal Experiment License Number of SYXK(Wan)2020-001. Illustrated from
Fig. 5b, the test group's tumors (Sn nanocluster@CDs with LED) first began to scab, then gradually shrank over time, showing that the Sn nanocluster@CDs have the anti-tumor activity under light irradiation, while the control groups injected with the S-CDs or PBS demonstrate no shrinkage with/without LED, which is consistent with the
in vitro PDT studies and ESR results of
1O
2 detection. Besides, no significant weight fluctuations can be seen from the mice's weight curves (
Fig. 5c). To further explore the biocompatibility and evaluate the pathological cellular changes of main organs (heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney) as well as tumors, histological analysis by hematoxylin-eosin (H & E) staining was used, at the end of treatment [
40,
41]. As shown in Fig. S10 (Supporting information), there is almost no pathological change in normal organ tissues and little impact on liver tissue due to the release by renal excretion [
42]. Only the tumors of test group treated with Sn nanocluster@CDs under LED shows pathological cellular changes, indicating undetectable systemic phototoxicity [
43]. Although metal atom/ion doping is an important platform for construction of new kinds of
1O
2-generating material, the major drawback associated with the metal doping is the more or less fluorescence quenching of CDs, and induced high toxicity that cannot be tolerated in human body. As previously reported, the Cu-doped carbon dots (Cu-CDs) showed a
1O
2 QY of 36% [
38]; the Mn‐CDs assembly can effectively produce
1O
2 QY of 40% [
44]. In our present work, the
1O
2 QY of Sn nanocluster-CDs is at as high as 58.3%. Compared with other metal-doped CDs
1O
2-generating materials, in our present work, Sn nanocluster can not only enhance the fluorescence of CDs, but also increase
1O
2 QY and thus the PDT effect on 4T1 tumor both
in vitro and
in vivo. In a word, the as-prepared Sn nanocluster@CDs has been proved to be a promising PS for PDT in cancer therapy.