Nanosized temperature-responsive Fe3O4-UA-g-P(UA-co-NIPAAm) magnetomicelles for controlled drug release

This paper demonstrated the preparation of temperature-responsive magnetomicelles that consist of a functionalized hexagonal magnetic core, Fe3O4-undecylenic acid (Fe3O4-UA), and an amphiphilic surface layer of temperature-responsive polymer. The functionalized magnetic Fe3O4-UA core was prepared by a suspension-oxidation reaction in an aqueous solution, during which the formation of the Fe3O4 and coordination of UA to the Fe3O4 Occurred simultaneously. Amphiphilic poly(undecylenic acid-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) (P(UA-co-NIPAAm)) was grafted to the Fe3O4-UA core as a temperature-responsive micellar surface layer to prepare well dispersed Fe3O4-UA-g-P(UA-co-NIPAAm) magnetomicelles with the size of around 8 nm in water. The application of resulted nanosized Fe3O4-UA-g-P(UA-co-NIPAAm) magnetomicelles in controlled drug delivery was further investigated and it was found that resulting magnetomicelles exhibited good potential for temperature triggered controlled drug release. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.