The solvothermal synthesis of magnetic iron oxide nanocrystals and the preparation of hybrid poly(L-lactide)-polyethyleneimine magnetic particles

We report a simple and green procedure for the preparation of magnetic iron oxide nanocrystals via solvothermal synthesis. The nanocrystal synthesis was carried out under mild conditions in the water-ethanol-oleic acid solvent system with the use of the oleate anion as a surface modifier of nanocrystals and glucose as a reducing agent. Specific conditions for homogenous precipitation achieved in such a reaction system lead to the formation of uniform high-quality nanocrystals down to 5 nm in diameter. The obtained hydrophobic nanocrystals can easily be converted to hydrophilic magnetic nanoparticles by being immobilized in a poly(L-lactide)-polyethyleneimine polymeric matrix. These hybrid nano-constructs may find various biomedical applications, such as magnetic separation, gene transfection and/or magnetic resonance imaging. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.