Facile synthesis of gelatin-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticle: Effect of pH in single-step co-precipitation for cancer drug loading

Abstract

In this work, the magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) were successfully synthesized via the chemical co-precipitation in a facile single step with gelatin as a biopolymer coating for the cancer drug delivery namely mercaptopurine (Mer). The synthesized Fe3O4-NPs and gelatin coated-Fe3O4 NPs (GFe3O4 NPs) with and without drug loading (Mer-GFe3O4 NPs) were investigated for the structures, morphology, electrical conductivity and magnetic properties based on the pH values varying from 8 to 12 during the synthesis. The pH value was shown to influence the particle size and shape which were related to particle electrical and magnetic properties. The synthesized Fe3O4, GFe3O4, and Mer-GFe3O4 NPs were of the spherical, connected-fibrous, and irregular shapes with the average sizes between 25 and 80 nm. Moreover, they all exhibited the superparamagnetic behavior with the magnetization in the range of 25–64 emu/g. The optimum pH for the synthesized Mer-GFe3O4 NPs was 10 with a smaller particle size without particle agglomeration, and with semiconducting and superparamagnetic properties. Thus, the synthesized Fe3O4 and GFe3O4 NPs were shown here as potential cancer drug carriers. Keywords: Magnetite nanoparticle, Chemical co-precipitation, Synthesis, Cancer drug carrier