Clustering effects on the heating performance of magnetic nanoparticles

Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticle (NP) hyperthermia has risen high expectations as an alternative therapy for treating cancer. However, in order to compete with existing therapies, the heat delivered under application of an alternating needs to be maximized keeping the NP concentration at a minimum. For this purpose, an appropriate choice of external parameters and material characteristics is required. In the present study, we will use Monte Carlo simulations of dipolar interacting assemblies of NP to study how the size of the NP, their degree of clustering and concentration, as well as the applied magnetic field can be tuned in order to get the maximum delivered heat power. In particular, we will show that particular spatial distributions of the NP minimize the detrimental influence of the unavoidable interparticle interactions