Synthesis and characterization of new functionalized polymer-Fe3O4 nanocomposite particles

Abstract

In this study, Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were functionalized with copolymer or terpolymer bearing glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) moieties making them suitable for potential applications as drug delivery systems (DDS). For this purpose, the surface of magnetic nanoparticles was first coated with 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (MPS) by a silanization reaction to introduce reactive methacrylate groups onto the surface. Subsequently, monomers were grafted onto the surface of modified-MPS particles via two polymerization methods: seed emulsion (GMA, divinylbenzene, DVB, and styrene, S) and distillation – precipitation (GMA and DVB). The obtained nanocomposite particles were characterized by FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), DR UV-Vis (diffuse reflectance ultraviolet – visible spectroscopy), TEM (transmission electron microscopy) combined with EDS (energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) analysis and DLS (dynamic light scattering). FTIR spectroscopy showed that indeed a polymer – Fe3O4@MPS composite was obtained. TEM and EDS analysis showed that the seed emulsion method resulted in nanosized, 100 nm Fe3O4@MPS core/polymer shell NPs, forming long chains. On the contrary, the distillation – precipitation method caused the formation of an inverted structure, i.e. polymer core coated by a Fe3O4@MPS shell, which exhibited a very coarse size distribution varying from several hundreds to over 2 µm.