Bi₂S₃ nanostructures can theoretically have photothermal properties. However, there are few reports on the application of bismuth sulfide in photothermal therapy due to the poor photothermal effect. To address this problem, herein we obtained Bi₂S₃ nanorods with defect structures via a facile method. Due to the special shape and defects, the Bi₂S₃ nanorods exhibited a strong absorption band in the NIR region, thus showed excellent photothermal effect. The photothermal conversion efficiency of Bi₂S₃ nanorods was calculated to be as high as 78.1% due to the strong NIR absorption. Importantly, the photothermal ablation experiments both in vitro and in vivo proved that the Bi₂S₃ nanorods can effectively kill cancer cells under the irradiation of an 808 nm laser. In addition, Bi₂S₃ nanorods can be used as effective CT imaging agents due to inherently high X-ray attenuation coefficient of bismuth. Our work demonstrated that the Bi₂S₃ nanorods were very promising photothermal nanoplatforms for photothermal therapy of cancers, guided by CT imaging.

Bi ₂ S ₃纳米结构在理论上可以具有光热特性。然而，由于不良的光热效应，很少有关于硫化铋在光热疗法中的应用的报道。为了解决该问题，本文中通过简便的方法获得了具有缺陷结构的Bi ₂ S ₃纳米棒。由于其特殊的形状和​​缺陷，Bi ₂ S ₃纳米棒在近红外区域表现出很强的吸收带，因此表现出优异的光热效应。Bi ₂ S ₃的光热转化效率由于强大的NIR吸收，纳米棒的计算值高达78.1％。重要的是，光热消融实验体外 和 体内证明Bi ₂ S ₃纳米棒可以在808 nm激光照射下有效杀死癌细胞。此外，由于铋固有的高X射线衰减系数，Bi ₂ S ₃纳米棒可以用作有效的CT成像剂。我们的工作表明，在CT成像的指导下，Bi ₂ S ₃纳米棒是用于癌症光热治疗的非常有前途的光热纳米平台。