A novel one step synthesis of tragacanth coated SiO2@Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and their use for drug delivery applications

Gum tragacanth is a viscous, odorless, tasteless, water-soluble mixture of polysaccharides obtained from sap that is drained from the root of the plant and dried[1]. In this work a novel method for one step synthesis of magnetic SiO2@Fe3O4 nanoparticles coated with tragacanth has been developed. The core–shell Fe3O4@SiO2 nanocomposites were prepared using a modified method from Stöber et al. [2]. The tragacanth coating was obtained by performing the co-precipitation of Fe2+ and Fe3+ with ammonium hydroxide and silica in a solution of tragacanth. The obtained tragacanth coated SiO2@Fe3O4 particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The nanomagnetic particles were functionalized by ammonium hydroxide. The functionalized nanoparticles were loaded with a drug (metformin) and the drug release was investigated spectrophotometrically at physiological pH (7). The functionalized tragacanth coated displayed good adsorption and in-vitro drug release in phosphate buffer saline (pH=5). The tragacanth loaded magnetic nanoparticles were succesfuly synthesized and the results indicate that they can be used in separation and drug delivery applications.