Synthesis optimization and characterization of chitosan-coated iron oxide nanoparticles produced for biomedical applications

The chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles (CS MNPs) were in situ synthesized by cross-linking method. In this method; during the adsorption of cationic chitosan molecules onto the surface of anionic magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) with electrostatic interactions, tripolyphosphate (TPP) is added for ionic cross-linking of the chitosan molecules with each other. The characterization of synthesized nanoparticles was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS/ESCA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) analyses. The XRD and XPS analyses proved that the synthesized iron oxide was magnetite (Fe3O4). The layer of chitosan on the magnetite surface was confirmed by FTIR. TEM results demonstrated a spherical morphology. In the synthesis, at higher NH4OH concentrations, smaller sized nanoparticles were obtained. The average diameters were generally between 2 and 8 nm for CS MNPs in TEM and between 58 and 103 nm in DLS. The average diameters of bare MNPs were found as around 18 nm both in TEM and DLS. TGA results indicated that the chitosan content of CS MNPs were between 15 and 23 % by weight. Bare and CS MNPs were superparamagnetic. These nanoparticles were found non-cytotoxic on cancer cell lines (SiHa, HeLa). The synthesized MNPs have many potential applications in biomedicine including targeted drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetic hyperthermia.