The Role of Nanoferrites in Bio-medical Applications

Abstract

Magnetic nanoferrites have shown immense potential in the biomedical applications due to its ability to precisely control the behavior by application of external magnetic field. Superior magnetic properties of ferrites make them promising nanoagents in various applications like targeted drug delivery, magnetic separation, biosensors, MRI, antimicrobial agents and magnetic hyperthermia (MHT). The challenge is to maintain the high magnetization which decreases when size is reduced to nanoscale, hence the engineering of these nanoferrites is of prime importance, where selection of appropriate synthesis method plays very important role. Hence the parameters like morphology, biocompatibility, chemical and physical properties affect the efficiency of nanoferrites in biomedical applications. IntroductionNanoferrites have numerous biomedical applications due to their size comparable to biological molecules and excellent magnetic properties, which are prerequisites for all biomedical applications. Due to the transparency of biological tissues to magnetic field, various properties can be tuned when nanoferrites interacts with magnetic field. These unique properties of magnetic nanoferrites along with the stability, sensitivity and easy functionalization makes them the future biomedical materials in numerous applications like targeted biosensors, drug delivery, MRI imaging, magnetic separation, antimicrobial agents, magnetic hyperthermia, detoxification, photoablation therapy [1,2]. The magnetic characteristics of ferrite nanoparticles strongly affect its performance in biomedical applications. For example, saturation magnetization is Sarveena (B)