Microwave response of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 nanoparticles for heating applications

La0.3Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) nanoparticles having average particle size of the order of 20 nm are synthesized by citrate-gel route and evaluated for their microwave response. The structural and magnetization studies establish phase pure nature of nanoparticles with the intended stoichiometry (Curie temperature similar to 360 K). These nanoparticles exhibit a temperature increase from room temperature to 45 degrees C in 120 s when subjected to microwave exposure of 2.45 GHz. Considering hyperthermia as one of the possible application domain of such materials, the cytotoxicity studies on human skin carcinoma and human fibrosarcoma cell lines was done. These studies reveal the percentage cell viability with the exposure to these nanoparticles with a dose of 10 mu g/ml to be about 85% and 78% respectively. To study the effect of nanoparticles on normal cells, results were compared with primary mice fibroblast cells which show the corresponding cell viability of 94%.