Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoarticles for Biomedical Applications: a focus on PVA as a coating
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Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoarticles for Biomedical Applications : a focus on PVA as a coating M.Chastellain, A. Petri and H. Hofmann Powder Technology Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland ABSTRACT Nanoscaled particles showing a superparamagnetic behavior have been intensively studied these past years for biomedical applications and water-based ferrofluids turned out to be promising candidates for various in vivo as well as in vitro applications. Nevertheless, the lack of well-defined particles remains an important problem. One of the major challenges is still the large-scale synthesis of particles with a narrow size distribution. In this work iron oxide nanoparticles are obtained by classical co-precipitation in a water-based medium and are subsequently coated with polyvinyl alcohol. The thus obtained ferrofluids are studied and a focus is made on their colloidal stability. INTRODUCTION The recent development of a large variety of ferrofluids has led to a range of new biomedical and diagnostic applications [1-9]. Various applications such as magnetic separation techniques or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are relatively well established on the market, whereas drug delivery and targeting are still in a development stage. An important application in the field of drug targeting is related to the healthcare of the elderly, in particular at diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Many of these diseases are characterized by severe inflammation, disability and pain [10]. If a better control of inflammation can be obtained, dosages can be reduced, side effects on other tissues can be eliminated, and immediate action can be taken. The application of static external magnetic fields in order to target the drug-loaded particles to an area of inflammation e.g. a joint may provide an important component of such treatments. Although a large interest exists in the field of radiology and oncology from the medical side, more fundamental research is still needed to show the feasibility of the concept. A major drawback for a lot of applications remains the lack of well-defined and wellcharacterized particles. Growing attention is paid to iron oxide nanoparticles embedded in a polymer matrix. The matrix fulfils several demands : on the one hand it acts as a stabilizer, on the other hand it determines the physicochemical properties of the material and allows further surface functionalization. In this study ferrofluids based on polyvinylic alcohol (PVA) coated iron oxide particles have been prepared by alkaline co-precipitation of ferric and ferrous chlorides in aqueous solution. Different techniques have been applied in order to obtain extensive information about the iron oxide core composition, structure and size distribution. Photon correlation spectroscopy was used for PVA coating characterization. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS All chemicals were analytical reagent grade and were used without further purification. Ultra-pure de-ionized water (Seralpur delta UV/UF setting, 0.055 µS/cm) was used
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