A designed synthesis of multifunctional Fe3O4@carbon/zinc phosphate nanoparticles for simultaneous imaging and synergic chemo-photothermal cancer therapy.

A simple, novel, and reproducible synthetic strategy was developed to fabricate multifunctional Fe3O4@carbon/zinc phosphate core-shell nanoparticles (Fe3O4@C/ZnP NPs), which were employed as pH/near infrared (NIR)-responsive drug carriers for simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and synergistic chemo-photothermal cancer therapy in vitro.