Iron Carbide Nanostructures:An Emerging Material for Tumor Theranostics

CONSPECTUS:Iron carbide(IC)nanostructures have attracted intense interest in several energetic and magnetic-related fields due to their high saturation magnetization,desirable stability,and excellent catalytic activity.Due to their iron-based magnetic capacity and carbonarising near-infrared light-responsive performance,IC nanostructures have been regarded as emerging materials for tumor theranostics in the past decades.They have been extensively explored in several tumor-related biomedical areas,such as magnetic targeting,magnetic resonance imaging,magnetic hyperthermia,photoacoustic tomography,and photothermal therapy.In view of the growing requirements for tumor theranostics,IC nanostructures need to be incorporated with other nanostructures to form the improved IC-based nanocomposites.The success of such a manufacturing process needs not only the deep understanding of the synthesis mechanism of IC nanostructures but also the functionality of IC nanostructures in tumor diagnosis and therapy,as well as the interaction between IC nanostructures and the specific tumor microenvironment.By forming IC-based nanocomposites,the application scope of IC nanostructures is expanded to some unexplored areas,expecting to discover new biological functionality.In this Account,we summarize the synthesis and surface modification of IC-based nanostructures,and their recent promising applications in tumor theranostics,aiming to provide some paradigms for designing IC-based nanocomposites and uncover the interactions between ICbased nanocomposites and biological systems.