Green synthesis of iron silicide nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy

Guo, Xutao (2023). Green synthesis of iron silicide nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Over the last few decades, the interest in photothermal therapy increased dramatically. A wide variety of photothermal agents have been reported since 2003. Improved photothermal agents with good efficacy, safety and scalable synthesis are required. This thesis focuses on the fabrication, characterization, photothermal performance, photothermal therapy \(\textit{in vivo}\) and biodegradability test of a novel photothermal agent.

The thesis is arranged in the manner as follows. The motivation and the background topics (chapter 1) were firstly introduced. Then the synthesis of materials and basic characterization (chapter 2), \(\textit{in-vitro}\) photothermal performance (chapters 3), photothermal therapy \(\textit{in vivo}\) (chapter 4) and then \(\textit{in-vitro}\) biodegradability (chapter 5).

Mesoporous iron silicide nanoparticles (FeSi NPs) were synthesized by a simple green method of magnesiothermic co-reduction. Starting from biogenic mesoporous silica (“tabasheer”) extracted from bamboo and Fe\(_{2}\)O\(_{3}\), the resultant FeSi NPs of a small band gap showed a good optical absorption with a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 76.2%, indicating a good photothermal performance. The weight extinction coefficient of the FeSi NPs was 13.3 L g\(^{−1}\) cm\(^{−1}\) at 1064 nm (second near-infrared window, NIR-II), which surpassed the performance of other competitive Si-based and Fe-based photothermal agents. \(\textit{In vivo}\) results on mice showed clearly an efficient suppression of tumour growth by photothermal treatment with the synthesized FeSi NPs. Biodegradability test shows that fabricated FeSi NPs are slowly biodegradable. The results from our thesis indicate that FeSi NPs are a new class of promising photothermal agents (PTAs) for photothermal therapy of cancer.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):