From thermographical data to 2D temperature maps: how to evaluate performance for magnetic hyperthermia experiments in phantoms

We unveil a novel method to generate 2D temperature maps for magnetic nanoparticle samples in magnetic hyperthermia experiments from infrared thermography measurements. It allows obtaining thermodynamic parameters such as energy, power and heat flux with spatiotemporal detail, in contrast with the conventional local probing. We tested it by analyzing polyacrylamide gel phantoms that have a viscosity near cytosol’s, with both dispersed and oriented nanoparticles. We tracked the temporal evolution of the temperature gradient of the phantom during ac field application and identified spatial inhomogeneities through the temperature maps, which highlights that a 2D analysis could benefit the interpretation of results obtained in biological and medical uses.