Preparation of Magnetic Chitosan Nanocomposite Particles and Their Susceptibility for Cellular Separation Applications

Magnetic nanoparticles have been widely exploited in medical sciences and their coating with biopolymers such as liposoms, starch, and collagen has been already well-accomplished in cellular application. In this study, chitosan was chemically-bonded on the surface of magnetite nanoparticles, where 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) was employed in advance to modify the magnetite nanoparticles' surface. Modified and unmodified magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR, TGA, TEM, VSM, DLS and MTT analyses. FT-IR, TGA and DLS results definitely showed surface modification of magnetic nanoparticles with APTES and chitosan. TEM images revealed the morphology of the obtained nanocomposite particles and their magnetic properties were studied by evaluation of corresponding hysteresis loops via VSM analysis. MTT assay and cellular results depicted high viability of coated magnetic nanoparticles with chitosan and their usefulness in biomedical field, specially in cell separation applications.