A comprehensive review on the synthesis and photothermal cancer therapy of titanium nitride nanostructures

STitanium nitride, a substitute plasmonic material to gold with exceptional features is a favorable photo-absorbing agent for photothermal therapy (PTT) based on the spectral match of their plasmon resonance band and the biological transparency window as well as good biocompatibility. Nevertheless, a review on its synthesis and possible utilization in photothermal cancer therapy has never been explored. This review presents the synthetic routes of titanium nitrides (TiN) nanoparticles (NPs) and their performance in photothermal cancer therapy. The synthetic techniques that were looked into are solvothermal, hydrothermal, sol-gel, laser ablation, chemical vapor deposition and non-thermal plasma techniques. This study has established the extraordinary prospect of plasmonic TiN NPs in the treatment of cancer via photothermal therapy.