Enhancement in hyperthermia efficiency under in situ orientation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in dispersions

To minimize the exposure time in magnetic fluid hyperthermia based cancer therapy, it is important to improve the heating efficiency. We demonstrate a 62% enhancement in heating efficiency through in situ orientation of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) along the direction of the radio frequency alternating magnetic field using a static external magnetic field of 80 G in phosphate coated superparamagnetic Fe3O4 MNP dispersions. The heating efficiency increase in oriented samples is due to the enhanced effective anisotropy energy density along the linear chainlike structures of the MNPs, as confirmed from atomic force microscopy and the larger dynamic hysteresis loop area.