Magnetic membranes based on PVA-SPION for hyperthermia and dielectric applications

Magnetodielectric membranes were spun by electrospinning ferrofluids containing Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide (SPION) in a carrier liquid of Polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) for various loadings of iron oxide. These membranes were characterised using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM),Vibrational Sample Magnetometry (VSM),Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and found to be of good quality having adequate magnetic and dielectric properties. The iron oxide particles were found to be ∼9 nm in size and superparamagnetic in nature. The addition of iron oxide led to a systematic increase in both magnetic and dielectric properties. A maximum saturation magnetization of ∼6.3 emu g⁻¹ and a dielectric constant of ∼50 was obtained for a loading of 40 percentage of Iron oxide. A dielectric transducer was fabricated using the membranes. These membranes also exhibited magnetic hyperthermia as evidenced by magnetic hyperthermia measurements. They are found to be potential candidates for hyperthermia applications as wearables. The method of employing a ferrofluid can be adopted for spinning membranes based on other than PVA/SPION. If the loading is optimised these membranes can be employed as Magnetodielectric transducers.