Characterising temperature dependent morphological changes to thermosensitive semiconducting polymer nanoparticles for drug delivery

We have synthesised a series of novel semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) for photothermal therapy. Characterising changes to their morphology upon heating is crucial for elucidating how they can be applied to effectively deliver encapsulated cargo to cancer cells. Here we propose i) a series of experiments over a wide temperature range to capture the changes in SPN morphology upon heating, and ii) contrast matching experiments to study the intra-particle location of an encapsulated drug and its release profile. The results will provide key mechanistic insights into the application of these particles for cancer therapeutics which are not possible by other techniques.