Mesoporous Fe3O4 nanoparticle: A prospective nano heat generator for thermo-therapeutic cancer treatment modality

Abstract

In the present work, we have synthesized Fe3O4 MNPs with a mesoporous feature by the solvothermal process. Through iteration of experiments, we found that the specific solvent helped in stabilizing the mesoporous structure. We have used techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) to study the structural features of the sample. The material demonstrated effective heating under an alternating magnetic field (AMF), and the concentration of aqueous ferro-fluid influences the same. The experimental intrinsic loss power (ILP) value of ∼ 5.30 ± 0.25 nHm2kg−1 is suggestively higher than the commercially available ferro-fluids and equivalent to previously reported values for iron oxide MNPs. The material demonstrated an impressive heating performance under near infra-red (NIR) irradiation with a concentration as small as 0.1 mg/mL. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy has allowed corroborating the efficient heating behaviour of the material under NIR irradiation. An effective decrease in SiHa cells viability was observed after NIR exposure with concentration of 250 and 500 μg/mL of MNPs. We believe this work will pave a new pathway in the area of biomaterials thermo-therapeutic cancer treatment with improved efficacy via mesoporous structure, efficient heating under NIR exposure and high ILP value.