Crafting Iron Oxides for Next-Generation Biomedical Applications

Iron oxides are multifunctional materials that have been extensively explored for many applications, including in novel biomedical applications. However, boosting their ability for biomedical purposes remains a significant challenge. Many strategies have been proposed to increase the feasibility of iron oxides for biomedical applications, such as doping and defect engineering, compositing and decorating, surface and interface engineering, and structure and morphology development. This review focuses on the essential advancements of iron oxides for their implementation in biomedical applications. The discussion starts with the design of iron oxides in biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, heat delivery, contrast agents, biomedical nanorobots, and disease-sensing systems. We also discuss the obstacle of iron oxides in biomedical applications and continue by proposing a plausible strategy to enhance the feasibility of iron oxides in biomedical applications. The provided discussion and perspectives can enrich the information and pave the way to finding strategies to enhance the feasibility of iron oxides in biomedical-related applications. We believe that our review also could shed light on how to bring iron oxides close to real implementation for biomedical purposes.