Synthesis and characterization of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Monodisperse iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) of 4 nm were obtained through high-temperature solution phase reaction of iron (III) acetylacetonate with 1, 2-hexadecanediol in the presence of oleic acid and oleylamine. The as-synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetic measurements. The species obtained were Fe3O4 and/or \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$\upgamma$\end{document}-Fe2O3. These NPs are superparamagnetic at room temperature and even though the reduced particle size they show a high saturation magnetization (MS ≈ 90 emu/g).