Fabrication and hemocompatibility of carboxy-chitosan stabilized magnetite nanoparticles

This paper describes fabrication of a new hemocompatible, magnetic nanoparticles based on magnetite and naturally occurring chitosan, potentially applicable as biomaterials to nanobiomedicine. We fabricated carboxy-functionalized magnetite-chitosan (Fe3O4-CS-BTCDA) nanocomposite particles by a simple two-stage protocol. Magnetite-chitosan (Fe3O4-CS) nanocomposite particles were first prepared via in situ chemical coprecipitation reactions using Fe2+ and Fe3+ salts in an alkaline aqueous solution of CS. Fe3O4-CS nanocomposite particles were then reacted with butanetetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTCDA) to obtain the Fe3O4-CS-BTCDA nanocomposite particles dispersible under physiological conditions. The obtained nanoparticles are superparamagnetic. The hemolytic activity of the Fe3O4-CS-BTCDA nanocomposite particles is very low and essential for practical bio-related applications.