Accelerated one-pot synthesis of coated magnetic nanoparticles from iron(II) as a single precursor

In spite of the progress in synthetic methods to obtain nanoparticles, particularly magnetite either uncoated or coated, the implementation of easier, faster and reproducible protocols to obtain well-defined nanoparticles is still a challenge. In this work we present a one-pot approach to synthesize Fe3O4 nanoparticles uncoated and coated with dodecylamine (DDA), starting from a single iron precursor (FeCl2) and incorporating a non-conventional stirring regime into the procedure. The products were characterized by XRD, TEM, TGA, FT-IR and Mossbauer spectroscopy, confirming the obtaining of the target materials. The magnetic measurements showed that the coated nanoparticles (Fe3O4@DDA) exhibited a higher saturation magnetization (M-s) and smaller coercivity (H-c) than the uncoated ones. The compromise between the saturation magnetization displayed by Fe3O4@DDA nanoparticles and the ease of its synthesis shows the potential of the method to obtain materials applicable to medical therapies.