Mustafa Aghazadeh - NFCRS, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute (NSTRI), Tehran, Iran.
Isa Karimzadeh - Shefa Neuroscience Research Center, Khatam ol Anbia Specialty and Subspecialty Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Recently, increased investigations with several types of iron oxides have been carried out in thefield of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) mostly includes magnetite (Fe3O4, superparamagneticwhen the size is less than 15 nm), hematite (α-Fe2O3), maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) [1]. Among them,magnetite is the very promising and popular candidates [2]. However, it is a technologicalchallenge to control size, shape, stability, and dispersibility of NPs in desired solvents.Magnetite NPs have a large surface-to volume ratio and therefore possess high surface energies.Consequently, they tend to aggregate so as to minimize the surface energies. Moreover, theyhave high chemical activity, and are easily oxidized in air, generally resulting in loss ofmagnetism and dispersibility. Therefore, providing effective coating strategies and developingnovel synthetic methods to prepare stable monodisperse iron oxide NPs is very important.Herein, we report preparation of naked and polymer coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles by an effectiveelectrochemical method. In this way, in a two-electrode system and using base electrogenerationon the cathode surface, pure magnetite phase of iron oxide and also double coated withpolyethylene glycol/polyethyleneimine polymers were successfully electrodeposited on thecathode surface. The structure and composition of the prepared nanoparticles were identified bySEM, TEM, DLS, XRD, FTIR, and TG analyses. The PEG/PEI coat on the surface of Fe3O4nanoparticles was confirmed by IR and TG data. The superparamagnetic properties of theprepared nanoparticles were characterized through VSM data.

Fe3O4, Electrochemical synthesis, Polymer coating, Biomedical applications