Study of Viscoelastic Behaviour of Cellulose Fluid Carrying Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Injectable In-Situ Hyperthermia Application

Abstract

The current study deals with analysis of shear thinning and viscoelastic behaviour of cellulose fluid carrying iron oxide particles for injectable in-situ hyperthermia treatment. The iron oxide nano-particles of size 106 nm used in the study were synthesized through co-precipitation method using hydrothermal technique and were found to show high coercivity value of 75.83 Oe indicating its good stability. The magnetic nano-particles were suspended in a cellulose fluid for better injectability. This suspension along with the iron-oxide magnetic particles showed good heating efficiency of about 43 0 C in 60 seconds making it ideal for hyperthermia treatment. The specific absorption rate (SAR) and effective specific absorption rate (ESAR) were calculated for the as synthesized nano-particles and for suspension at varying concentrations and it was found that an optimized concentration of 20 mg of the nano-particles dispersed in 5 ml of the polymeric solution was ideal for hyperthermia treatment. The rheological properties studied for the suspension showed that the fluid showed shear-thinning and viscoelastic properties similar to that of human blood making it more suitable for carrying the iron-oxide nano-particles to the tumour site irrespective of the kind of shear stress that it is subjected to. The synthesized particles and the suspension fluid could successfully induce mild heat to the tumour site when delivered through intra-venous route or through intramuscular route thereby aiding radiotherapy and chemotherapy by dilating the blood vessels and thus enabling blood circulation to the poorly oxygenated cancer cells.