Preparation of Magnetic Chitosan Nanoparticles for Diverse Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Polymeric nanoparticles with magnetic properties can be potentially used in many fields such as biotechnology, separation processes, optoelectronic, catalysts and/or sensors, medical diagnosis and therapy. In this respect, biopolymers give promising trends due to their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. Therefore in this study, magnetic chitosan/Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were prepared according to the procedure based on the ionic gelation of chitosan with tripolyphosphate anions. The formation of the particles was a result of the interaction between the negatively charged groups of the tripolyphosphate and the positively charged amino groups of chitosan. The prepared samples were observed by atomic force microscopy to obtain information about the morphology. The mean particle size of the nanoparticles was determined by dynamic light scattering measurements. Nanoparticles were spherical in shape with a particle size range of about 250–400 nm according to obtained data. Magnetic properties of the nanoparticles were determined by using ESR and VSM.