Bimetallic nanoparticles, or BMNPs, are nanosized structures that are of growing interest in biomedical applications. Although their production shares aspects with physicochemical approaches for the synthesis of their monometallic counterparts, they can show a large variety of new properties and applications as a consequence of the synergetic effect between the two components. These applications can be as diverse as antibacterial treatments or anticancer or biological imaging approaches, as well as drug delivery. Nevertheless, the utilization of BMNPs in such fields has received limited attention because of the severe lack of knowledge and concerns regarding the use of other nanomaterials, such as stability and biodegradability over time, tendency to form clusters, chemical reactivity, and biocompatibility. In this review, a close look at bimetallic systems is presented, focusing on their biomedical applications as antibacterial, anticancer, drug delivery and imaging agents, showing significant enhancement of their features compared to their monometallic counterparts and other current used nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
Index1. Nanotechnology for biomedical applications. 1.1. Nanotechnology and nanomedicine. The born of a new era. 1.2. The use of metallic nanoparticles in nanomedicine. 2. Bimetallic nanoparticles. A step further. 2.1. Synthesis of bimetallic nanoparticles 2.1.1. Physicochemical approaches 2.1.2. Green chemistry approaches 2.2. Bimetallic nanoparticles as biomedical tools 2.2.1.