Templated growth of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles by temperature programming in the presence of poly(vinyl alcohol)

Abstract Magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanostructures with different morphologies including uniform nanoparticles, magnetic beads and nanorods were synthesized via a co-precipitation method. The synthesis process was performed at various temperatures in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) at different concentrations. It is shown that small amounts of PVA act as a template in hot water (70 °C), leading to the oriented growth of Fe 3 O 4 nanorods, which was confirmed by selected area electron diffraction. Individually coated magnetite nanoparticles and magnetic beads were formed at a relatively lower temperature of 30 °C in the folded polymer molecules due to the thermo-physical properties of PVA. When a moderate temperature ( i.e. 50 °C) was used, nanorods and nanobeads co-existed. At higher concentrations of PVA (polymer/iron mass ratio of 5), however, the formation of magnetic beads was favored. The nanorods were shown to be unstable upon exposure to electron beams. Freezing/thawing process was applied post synthesis as temperature programming to fabricate stable nanorods with rigid walls.