Issue 2, 2017

Iron carbide nanoparticles: an innovative nanoplatform for biomedical applications

Abstract

Iron carbide nanoparticles (ICNPs) are nano-intermetallic compounds that consist of iron and carbon. Benefiting from the magnetic and chemical activity of iron, and/or mechanical strength and chemical inertness of carbon, they have been widely applied in energetic and biomedical-related fields. Particularly in biomedicine, ICNPs have shown high colloidal stability and good performance in magnetic-dependent diagnosis and therapies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic hyperthermia (MH), due to their high magnetization and moderate coercivity. The carbon content protects ICNPs from oxidation and corrosion (ion release), which prolongs their life time and reduces their toxicity in physiological environments, and endows nanoparticles (NPs) with high performance in carbon-relevant theranostics as well. On this basis, ICNPs have great promise in multi-modal imaging or imaging-guided tumor-selective therapy to realize precise diagnoses with mild side effects. This paper aims to cover the state of the art applications of ICNPs in biomedicine, primarily including MRI, MH, magnetic targeting (MT), magnetic separation (MS), photothermal therapy (PTT) and photoacoustic tomography (PAT). The biocompatibility of ICNPs is also addressed.

Graphical abstract: Iron carbide nanoparticles: an innovative nanoplatform for biomedical applications

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
30 sep 2016
Accepted
18 nov 2016
First published
21 nov 2016

Nanoscale Horiz., 2017,2, 81-88

Iron carbide nanoparticles: an innovative nanoplatform for biomedical applications

J. Yu, F. Chen, W. Gao, Y. Ju, X. Chu, S. Che, F. Sheng and Y. Hou, Nanoscale Horiz., 2017, 2, 81 DOI: 10.1039/C6NH00173D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements