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Applications of selected nano-particles in nano-medicine

Helmut Schmid 

Fraunhofer ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer 7, Pfinztal 76327, Germany

Abstract

Some nano-particles have great potential for applications in nano-medicine. These include especially nano-silver, nano-magnetite and carbon nano-tubes (CNT´s).

Nano-silver has an antimicrobial effect. Nano-magnetite is a ferrimagnetic substance which can be excited in an alternating magnetic field. Injected into tumors, cancer cells die via hyperthermia. Modified carbon nano-tubes can be used as drug carriers with defined release characteristics.

In the first step, the nano-particles are to be synthesized either by a top-down or bottom-up process. For best efficiency - in case of nano-silver and nano-magnetite - particle size distribution should have a maximum at 10 nm.

For thermodynamic reasons, nano-particles tend to re-agglomerate in order to lower surface-energy. This weakens the intended effects and must be prevented in any case and under all circumstances. Therefore a nano-stabilization by chemical additives is required, imprinting resulting surface charges. Poisson-Boltzmann differential equation is suitable to calculate surface potential and enable a targeted selection of additives.

The characterization of the nano-particles with selected analytical methods, e.g. scanning electron microscopy, x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction, photon correlation spectroskopy and atomic emission spectroscopy ist the next step. Here the trace analysis with AAS/AES is an essential element to proof nano-safety.

Most important step to enable application is system-integration, which means the combination of nano-technology with polymer-technology.

The paper explains the above steps in detail with examples and international references.

Figure 1: SEM-record of CNT´s suggested for contolled drug-delivery.

 

Auxiliary resources (full texts, presentations, posters, etc.)
  1. PRESENTATION: Applications of selected nano-particles in nano-medicine, PDF document, version 1.4, 4.9MB
 

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Related papers

Presentation: Invited oral at Nano-Biotechnologia PL, by Helmut Schmid
See On-line Journal of Nano-Biotechnologia PL

Submitted: 2012-06-18 14:42
Revised:   2012-06-18 16:40