Recent Progress in Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a rapidly growing discipline that is expected to become an encouraging noninvasive therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. In the PDT process, an efficient intersystem crossing (ISC) process for photosensitizers from the singlet excited state (S1) to the triplet excited state (T1) is critical for the formation of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species and improvement of PDT performance. Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules featuring an extremely small singlet–triplet energy gap and an efficient ISC process represent an enormous breakthrough for the PDT process. Consequently, the development of advanced TADF photosensitizers has become increasingly crucial and pressing. The most recent developments in TADF photosensitizers aimed at enhancing PDT efficiency for bio‐applications are presented in this review. TADF photosensitizers with water dispersibility, targeting ability, activatable ability, and two‐photon excitation properties are highlighted. Furthermore, the future challenges and perspectives of TADF photosensitizers in PDT are proposed.