High-magnetic-moment multifunctional nanoparticles for nanomedicine applications

Multifunctional FeCo nanoparticles with narrow size distribution (less than 8% standard deviation) were fabricated by a novel physical vapor nanoparticle-deposition technique. The size of magnetic nanoparticles was controlled in the range from 3 to 100 run. The shape of nanoparticles was controlled to be either spherical or cubic. The particles had a high specific magnetization of 226 emu/g at low saturation field, which is much higher than the currently commercialized iron oxide nanoparticles. Core-shell-type Co(Fe)-Au nanoparticles were produced by the same technique. They combined the high moment of the Co(Fe) core with the plasmonic feature of a Au shell. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.