Photothermal analysis of therapeutic nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy is a well documented, highly selective cancer treatment strategy, both as a standalone and complementary therapy. The efficiency of light-to-heat transduction serves as a benchmark parameter when comparing different nanoparticles. This work aims to design an experimental setup for efficiency calculation through the temperature curve. An additional equation for surrounding temperature is added to more accurately interpret the experimental data. Introduction of exhaust fans minimizes ambient temperature variation as suggested by the model. Continuous-wave laser irradiation at 1064 nm and 0.2-1.0W on an aqueous solution of Prussian blue nanoparticles with an iron oxide core is used to heat the sample and stopped after reaching a stable equilibrium temperature. The obtained value of the efficiency is n = 0.24 +_ 0.03. Overall, the experimental setup with forced heat extraction is useful to obtain temperature curves for efficiency calculation. Furthermore, the used nanoparticles are not ideal for photothermal therapy due to low efficiency