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Supramolecular nanomedicines, which use supramolecular design to improve the precision and effectiveness of pharmaceutical practice and optimize pharmacokinetic profiles, have gathered momentum to battle cancer and other incurable diseases, for which traditional small‐molecular and macromolecular drugs are less effective. However, the lack of clinical approval of supramolecular assembly‐based medicine underscores the challenges facing this field. A 2D nanodisc‐based supramolecular structure is formed by a non‐ionic heptamethine cyanine (Cy7) dye, which generates fluorescence self‐quenching but unique photothermal and photoacoustic properties. These Cy7‐based supramolecular nanodiscs exhibit passive tumor‐targeting properties to not only visualize the tumor by near‐infrared fluorescence imaging and photoacoustic tomography but also induce photothermal tumor ablation under irradiation. Due to the nature of organic small molecule, they induce undetectable acute toxicity in mice and can be eliminated by the liver without extrahepatic metabolism. These findings suggest that the self‐assembling cyanine discs represent a new paradigm in drug delivery as single‐component supramolecular nanomedicines that are self‐delivering and self‐formulating, and provide a platform technology for synergistic clinical cancer imaging and therapy.

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The composite poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP)-Ag(+) foam-like thin films were prepared at the interface between AgNO(3) aqueous solution and polymer chloroform solution at 25 °C. An X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) investigation indicated that Ag(+) ions in the composite films were partially transformed to Ag atoms after irradiated by UV-light and completely transformed to Ag atoms after being treated with KBH(4) aqueous solution. Ag nanoparticles with the average sizes of 2.71 ± 0.82 and 3.28 ± 1.20 nm were generated in these two transferred films with different treatments, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) images showed clearly that the composite films were composed of microcapsules whose walls had multilayer structures, and the nanoparticles were incorporated in the walls. The formation of the composite films at the liquid-liquid interface was attributed to the adsorption of the polymer molecules at the interface, coordination between the pyridine groups and Ag(+) ions, and self-assembly of the composite molecules. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of the composite films was evaluated using the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by KBH(4). The results demonstrated that the composite thin films have high and durable catalytic activity.

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