Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Synthesis and characterization of polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles by chemical co-precipitation method for biomedical applications
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Iron oxides particles particularly magnetite (Fe3O4) and its oxidized form (α-Fe2O4), are so far the most commonly used magnetic carriers for a variety of biomedical applications such as MRI contrast enhancement agents, hyperthermia, manipulating cell membranes, biosensors, biolabeling, tracking of cells and drug delivery [1]. It is well known that Fe3O4 is the strongest magnetic nanoparticles of all naturals’ minerals on earth [2]. Especially, a number of studies have been reported on the application of Fe3O4 nanoparticles as MRI contrast agent for early diagnosis and treatment [3], [4]. Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles should have a narrow size distribution and good dispersibility in aqueous media. However, pristine magnetic nanoparticles tend to appear aggregation due to large specific surface area and strong dipole–dipole interactions. Thus, a crucial issue influencing the use of Fe3O4 nanoparticles for MRI biological application is the stabilization and functionalization of their surface. To improve their stabilization, Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been stabilized with formation of a polymeric layer on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles, using lipids, proteins, dendrimers, gelatin, dextran, chitosan, pullulan, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), etc. [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10].
It has been known that polyethylene glycol (PEG) complex, commercially named “polyethylene oxide”, also called macrogels in the pharmaceutical industry, is both highly water soluble and not absorbed by humans, anticancer drugs, organ preservation, using on tablets (the manufacture of tablets requires numerous recipients with different functions, several of them covered by PEG), they also act as lubricants and binders, non-toxic and antibacterial, which is often employed in various medical applications [11], [12]. In this study PEG functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized using chemical co-precipitation method. Then, the structure, morphology and magnetic properties of PEG-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles were investigated by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field emission scanning electron microcopy (FE-SEM), field emission transmission electron microcopy (FE-TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM).
Section snippets
Materials
Ferric chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3·6H2O, 98%), ferrous chloride tetrahydrate (FeCl2·4H2O, 98%), methanol, hexamethylenediamine (C6H16N2, 98%) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. All chemicals were used directly without further purification.
Synthesis of PEG coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles
The PEG coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method according to the following procedure. In a typical experiment, aqueous solutions of 100 ml containing 0.017 M of ferric sulfate, 0.033 M of
Results and discussion
The crystalline structure of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles functionalized with PEG molecules was characterized by X-ray diffractometer. As shown in Fig. 2, it is found that the d-spacing values of significant peaks match well with data from the JCPDS card (19-029) for Fe3O4. The diffraction peaks at 2θ = 30.13°, 35.48°, 43.12° and 62.81° can be assigned to the (2 2 0), (3 1 1), (4 0 0) and (4 4 0) planes, respectively, which indicates the cubic spinel crystal structure of pure Fe3O4 [13]. Moreover, it can be
Conclusion
In summary, the preparation of PEG coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles by the co-precipitation method was reported in the present work and the structure, functional groups, morphology and magnetization properties were examined using different techniques, the average crystallite and the physical size of the produced nanoparticles were found to decrease with increasing weight of PEG. The prepared PEG coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic behavior and high saturation magnetization. Therefore
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