Functionalized silica coated magnetic nanoparticles with biological species for magnetic separation

Magnetic nanoparticle captured in a thin functional coating as magnetic separable nano-vehicle for carrying chemical species is a hot and challenging area. Here, we report a synthesis of silica encapsulated magnetic nanosize particles (4-11 nm) as a magnetic separable carrier based on a simple microemulsion technique. The silica coating surface is shown to isolate and protect the magnetic core from reactive environment where a range of conditions for magnetic separation can be made possible. Thus, it is demonstrated that the relatively smaller size coated magnetic nanoparticle can carry bulky protein, the bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the silica overlayer surface, which is confirmed by the FTIR study.