Applying trapezoidal driving-field waveforms to activate magnetic nanoparticles optimizes their performance as heat generators in magnetic hyperthermia, with notable advantages with respect to the effects of harmonic magnetic fields of the same frequency and amplitude. A rate equation approach is used to determine the hysteretic properties and the power released by monodisperse and polydisperse magnetite nanoparticles with randomly oriented easy axes subjected to a radio-frequency trapezoidal driving field. The heating ability of the activated nanoparticles is investigated by means of a simple model in which the heat equation is solved in radial geometry with boundary conditions simulating in vivo applications. Changes of the inclination of the trapezoidal waveform's lateral sides are shown to induce controlled changes in the specific loss power generated by the activated nanoparticles. Specific issues typical of the therapeutic practice of hyperthermia, such as the need for fine tuning of the optimal treatment temperature in real time, the possibility of combining sequential treatments at different temperatures, and the ability to substantially reduce the heating transient in a hyperthermia treatment are suitably addressed and overcome by making use of versatile driving fields of a trapezoidal shape.
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