Prospects for using silicon nanoparticles fabricated by laser ablation in hyperthermia of tumours

Abstract

The efficiency of using silicon nanoparticles, produced by laser ablation of porous silicon in liquids, as agents for hyperthermia of tumours using laser radiation with wavelengths of 633 and 800 nm is evaluated. Using the optical parameters of the nanoparticles suspensions determined earlier by the spectrophotometry measurements, the heating of tumour tissue with embedded nanoparticles is numerically modelled. The heat transfer equation is solved by the finite element method which considers the volumetric distribution of the absorbed light power, calculated by the Monte Carlo technique, as a distributed heat source. The simulations performed indicate that embedding silicon nanoparticles with a concentration of up to 5 mg mL−1 into a tumour allows its maximum temperature to be increased by 0.2–4 °C in comparison with heating the tumour without nanoparticles depending on the irradiation wavelength and intensity.