Finite Element Analysis of Smart Magnetoelectric Cobalt Ferrite-Barium Titanate Core-Shell Nanocomposites at Inducing Localized Hyperthermia.

A feasibility study on cobalt ferrite-barium titanate (CFO-BTO) core-shell nanocomposite as a potential candidate to induce localized hyperthermia is performed through finite element analysis (FEA). The applied field in the radio frequency range (RF) to the simulated nanosized magneto-electric (ME) CFO-BTO core-shell nanocomposites is translated to heat energy due to (i) eddy current loss (ii) hysteresis loss and (iii) relaxation loss. A quantitative estimation of the hysteresis loss and eddy current loss is evaluated. The required temperature for hyperthermia is approximately 315K and the Pennes bioheat equation is used to study the rate of change in the temperature of the surrounding dielectric tissue. The FEA is used to study the temperature gradient as a function of time for four cases: (i) no nanoparticles (ii) using CFO-BTO to generate hyperthermia (iii) using cobalt ferrite (CFO) to generate hyperthermia (iv) increasing the concentration of CFO-BTO to generate hyperthermia. It was evident that the rate of temperature increase is higher for CFO-BTO compared to CFO. This can be attributed to the acoustic translation of energy between the magnetostrictive and piezoelectric shells. The results also indicate that increasing the concentration of CFO-BTO allows a faster rate of applied field energy translation to internal energy due to close interparticle interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]