The last decade has seen significant research efforts dedicated to development of nanoparticles for biomedical applications in disease diagnosis, treatment or both (theranostics). For example, targeted drug delivery, magnetic separation, magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH), imaging (both MRI and MPI) or biosensors.

The unique equipment available at the Functional Materials research group allows synthesis of metallic and oxide nanoparticles by wet chemical as well as physical methods [1] with well-controlled particle size, shape and tunable magnetic properties. Our expertise and state-of-the-art measurement facilities allow in-depth characterization of magnetic hysteresis, blocking temperature and more.

For magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) performance evaluation, an AC magnetic field applicator with vacuum-insulated calorimeter for reliable heating response measurements, equipped with a thermal image system for real time surface imaging with an infrared camera which can be used for example for cell culture heating examinations in a petri dish has been recently installed.

[1] I. Dirba, C. A. Schwöbel, A. Zintler, P. Komissinskiy, L. Molina-Luna and O. Gutfleisch, Production of Fe nanoparticles from y-Fe2O3 by high-pressure hydrogen reduction, Nanoscale Adv., 2020, 2, 4777.
DOI: 10.1039/D0NA00635A