Preparation and characterization of polyvinyl alcohol-grafted Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles through glutaraldehyde

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are of great interest owing to their numerous existing and potential biomedical applications. To further explore the potential of MNPs in biomedical and other fields, we have designed and synthesized polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer grafted Fe3O4 MNPs through glutaraldehyde (GLA) link. The success of this process has been ascertained using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The FT-IR analysis of resultant MNPs show infrared peak characteristics of PVA. TGA analysis clearly shows two major stages of thermal degradation, one corresponding to organic phase of PVA and GLA and another corresponding to Fe3O4 nanoparticles. XRD results and SEM images further support the FT-IR and TGA results and confirm the presence of PVA layer surrounding Fe3O4 MNP surface. Under SEM examination, the magnetic cores exhibit somewhat irregular shapes varying from spherical, to oval to cubic. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.