The continuous synthesis of biodegradable photothermal copper sulfide nanoparticles has been carried out with the aid of a microfluidic platform. A comparative physicochemical characterization of the resulting products from the microreactor and from a conventional batch reactor has been performed. The microreactor is able to operate in a continuous manner and with a 4-fold reduction in the synthesis times compared to that of the conventional batch reactor producing nanoparticles with the same physicochemical requirements. Biodegradation subproducts obtained under simulated physiological conditions have been identified, and a complete cytotoxicological analysis on different cell lines was performed. The photothermal effect of those nanomaterials has been demonstrated in vitro as well as their ability to generate reactive oxygen species.

Functional groups present in thermo-responsive polymers are known to play an important role in aqueous solutions by manifesting their coil-to-globule conformational transition in a specific temperature range.