Issue 16, 2025

Vanadium incorporation in ferrite nanoparticles serves as an electron buffer and anisotropy tuner in catalytic and hyperthermia applications

Abstract

Cancer research has gradually shifted its focus from individual therapies to a combination of them for enhanced treatment effectiveness. In particular, the increased interest in the field of catalytic medicine through nanozymes proposes promising combinations with photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH). Nanozyme activity centers around the hydroxyl radical ˙OH, the most toxic of the reactive oxygen species (ROS). With a synergistic approach in mind, we studied VxFe3−xO4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as agents for ROS production and heating. These MNPs were exhaustively characterised both morphologically and magnetically. A compositional analysis through electron microscopy and spectroscopy unveils a core–shell structure with a V-rich shell. A study of the power absorption of these MNPs fixed into a gel matrix, emulating cytosol viscosity, provides values of up to 1000 W g−1 for samples with 0.5 wt% MNPs, an AC magnetic field amplitude of 65 mT and a frequency of 350 kHz, typical in the MFH application. A concentration of the ˙OH-adduct of up to 2300 nM has been measured through electron spin resonance analysis as a result of peroxidase-like activity. Through the comparison with similarly-sized ferrite MNPs, we determined that V incorporation lowers the magnetic anisotropy and serves as an electron buffer, explaining the enhanced MFH and ROS-production results.

Graphical abstract: Vanadium incorporation in ferrite nanoparticles serves as an electron buffer and anisotropy tuner in catalytic and hyperthermia applications

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Oct 2024
Accepted
10 Mar 2025
First published
13 Mar 2025
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2025,17, 10205-10218

Vanadium incorporation in ferrite nanoparticles serves as an electron buffer and anisotropy tuner in catalytic and hyperthermia applications

T. E. Torres, D. P. Valdés, S. Hettler, J. M. Nuñez, I. Rodrigo, I. Orue, J. Á. García, F. Plazaola, R. D. Zysler, E. Lima, M. H. Aguirre, G. F. Goya and R. Arenal, Nanoscale, 2025, 17, 10205 DOI: 10.1039/D4NR04219K

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