Innovative applications for radiofrequency heating

Recently radiofrequency heating has been successfully used in fine chemistry and pharmacy considering the main advantages of avoidance of hot spots, very high heat transfer rate from inside out and easy separation of magnetic catalysts by external magnet. The aim of this project is to widen the applications for radiofrequency heating in high profile research areas such as cancer treatment and biorefinery. Considering biorefinery, it could be used for biodiesel production with detailed control temperature in order to achieve high selectivity and conversion. Continuous flow operation with radiofrequency heating will enable the optimisation of the reaction conditions. As for cancer treatment, magnetic nanoparticles focalised on the heart of the tumour will be the unique resource for radiofrequency heating to gradually burn it. The synthesis, development and enhancement of these magnetic catalysts will be carried out and characterised. The focus will be on core-shell nanoparticles which will allow us to have a magnetic core with a catalytic shell for biorefinery or an aminoacid shell for cancer treatment. They will be tested with different radiofrequency heating set-ups.