Recent Developments in Metal and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles in the Field of Diagnosis

Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles are widely used in the detection and treatment of diseases due to their increased surface area, high sensitivity, and optical characteristics. They are also used in different industrial fields, such as biomedical, pharmaceutical wastewater treatment, catalysis, and energy storage. Drug delivery, diagnostics, bioimaging, cancer therapy, catalysis, hyperthermia, photoablation therapy, and biosensors are the most useful biomedical applications of metal nanoparticles. Metallic nanoparticles are generally solid colloidal metal particles of size range 10–1000 nm that incorporate a therapeutic molecule which remains either dispersed in the matrix of the polymer carrier, entrapped within a polymer shell, or attached or adsorbed by covalent linkage to the surface of the particles. Metallic oxides are compounds that contain at least one metal and one oxygen atom. They can be either ionic or covalent, but most are ionic. Metallic oxides are generally insoluble in water, but some (like aluminum oxide) are soluble.