STUDIES ON THE HEATING ABILITY BY VARYING THE SIZE OF Fe3O4 MAGNETIC NANOPARTICLES FOR HYPERTHERMIA

Magnetic hyperthermia is an application in cancer treatment wherein heat is produced by the magnetization and demagnetization of magnetic nanoparticles inside the cancerous cell or tumor cell with the help of external alternating magnetic field. Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles are synthesized by co-precipitation of ferrous and ferric salts under inert atmosphere using nitrogen gas. The size of the Fe3O4 particles are in the range of 10-30 nm, as measured by X-ray diffraction. Further for microstructural analysis, transmission electron microscopy used to measure the heating effect of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, which were kept inside the Helmholtz coil when the temperature was measured with respect to time at 50 Hz frequency and around 20 mT magnetic field. In addition, specific heat absorption rate was calculated and correlated with particle size of Fe3O4.