Fe3O4 NANOPARTICLES COATED WITH Zn(II)-CARBOXYLATO COMPLEXES

The present paper reports on a facile and nontoxic solvothermal method for the preparation of magnetite (Fe3O4) coated with Zn(II)-carboxylato complexes. The magnetite nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution (average particle size 3 nm) have been directly obtained by thermal decomposition of Fe(III)-acetylacetonate in polyethylene glycol (PEG 200), which acts both as green solvent and as reducing agent. The nanoparticles of Fe3O4 have been easily dispersed in polar solvents due to their in-situ coating with the hydrophilic layer of polyol ligands. The as-obtained nanoparticles can be further tuned by interacting with Zn(II) - carboxylato complexes: [Zn(HC4O4)(2)(OH2)(4)], Zn-1 and [Zn(C9H7O4)(2)(OH2)(3)]center dot 2H(2)O, Zn-2 with the aim of obtaining functional magnetic materials, Fe3O4@Zn-1 and Fe3O4@Zn-2, with potential applications as biomaterials. Preliminary biological assays on these nanoparticles proved that Fe3O4@Zn-1 nanoparticles exhibit good biocompatibility in HCT-8 and MSC cell lines; flow cytometry analysis and cloning studies showed that no significant changes occurred on cell cycles upon treatment (24 h, at 37 degrees C and 5% CO2) with synthesized Fe3O4@Zn-1 powders. High-resolution TEM (HRTEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) have been performed for nanoparticles characterization.