A subcellular organelle-targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs is a promising strategy to maximize the anti-cancer effects and minimize the adverse effects. Herein, we prepared a mitochondria-targeted drug delivery nanoplatform based on IR780 iodide (IR780) and titanium disulfide (TiS
2
) nanosheets. Due to the large specific surface area of TiS
2
nanosheets, the nanoplatform could highly load anti-cancer drug resveratrol (RV). The as-prepared nanocomposite (IR780-TiS
2
/RV) was used for an efficacious photothermal-triggered tumor chemotherapy. IR780-TiS
2
/RV showed satisfactory stability and biocompatibility, and the loading ratio of RV and IR780 was about 112% and 56%, respectively. Upon the near-infrared (NIR) irradiation, the heat generated by IR780-TiS
2
/RV could trigger the RV release. Due to the conjugation with the mitochondria-specific IR780, IR780-TiS
2
/RV could target and accumulate in mitochondria and release RV when triggered by NIR to decrease the mitochondrial membrane potential, rapidly induce the upregulation of key intrinsic apoptotic factors such as cytochrome c, and initiate the caspase cascade, thereby achieving the chemotherapeutic effect. The IR780-TiS
2
/RV nanocomposite was demonstrated to have a high anti-tumor efficacy in vitro and in vivo as well as no remarkable tissue toxicity. We believe our study demonstrates that the NIR-triggered IR780-TiS
2
/RV nanoplatform could be a promising chemotherapeutic agent in clinical practice.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-019-3044-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.