A comparative study on thermoresponsive magnetic nanohydrogels: role of surface-engineered magnetic nanoparticles

A comparative study of thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PNIPAAm)-chitosan (CS)-based magnetic nanohydrogels (MNHGs) encapsulating functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) in terms of the parameters governing their suitability for real hyperthermia is reported. Iron oxide NPs functionalized with (a) citric acid (CA-Fe3O4), (b) ethylenediamine (Amine-Fe3O4) and (c) dimercaptosuccininc (DMSA-Fe3O4) have been synthesized and their encapsulation into MNHGs was obtained through physical encapsulation method. The structural characterizations of synthesized materials include X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, TGA, ICP-AES and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Encapsulation of the functionalized NPs into MNHGs were observed in TEM micrographs, while SEM and AFM micrographs confirmed their spherical morphology (similar to 250-300 nm). Lower critical solution temperature (LCST) variation was measured by UV-visible spectrophotometer and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). MNHGs exhibited sufficient magnetization and heating ability for hyperthermia. Typically, hydrogels containing CA-Fe3O4 (50 mg/ml) raised the temperature of the medium to 43 A degrees C, a suitable dose for in vivo application in tumor-bearing mice.