| Summary: | The use of magnetic nanoparticles in the treatment of cancer using alternating current hyperthermia therapy has shown the potential to replace or supplement conventional cancer treatments, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which have severe side effects. Though the nearly spherical sub-10 nm iron oxide nanoparticles have their approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, their low heating efficiency and removal from the body after hyperthermia treatment raises serious concerns. The majority of magnetic hyperthermia research is working to create nanomaterials with improved heating efficiency and long blood circulation time. Here, we have demonstrated a simple strategy to enhance the heating efficiency of sub-10 nm Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> nanoparticles through the replacement of Fe<sup>+2</sup> ions with Co<sup>+2</sup> ions. Magnetic and hyperthermia experiments on the 7 nm Fe<sub>3−x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>4</sub> (x = 0–1) nanoparticles showed that the blocking temperature, the coercivity at 10 K, and the specific absorption rate followed a similar trend with a maximum at x = 0.75, which is in corroboration with the theoretical prediction. Our study revealed that the heating efficiency of the Fe<sub>3−x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>4</sub> (x = 0–1) nanoparticles varies not just with the size and saturation magnetization but also with the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the particles.
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