Synthesis of Water Soluble Superparamagnetic Nanocomposites for Biomedical Applications.

Abstract

The major challenge to prepare functional inorganic nanoparticles for biomedical applications is the controlled fabrication approach to obtain water-soluble nanoparticles with excellent colloidal stability, biocompatibility and appropriate surface chemistry. Thermal decomposition in non-polar solvent method, coupled with water solubilization process is commonly preferred to prepare water-soluble nanoparticles. This thesis highlighted four strategies of using organic-based materials as functional coating to render hydrophobic nanoparticles water soluble. The first strategy focused on in-situ surface modification during hydrophobic nanoparticles synthesis process. The second and third strategies focused on the use of amphiphilic brush copolymers to obtain water-soluble nanocomposites with single and collective hydrophobic nanoparticles encapsulation. The last strategy focused on decorating the surface of graphene oxide layer with hydrophobic nanoparticles, to form water soluble nanocomposites. For each strategy, superparamagnetic nanoparticles were used as a role model and the synthesized hydrophilic nanocomposites colloidal stability, biocompatibility as well as its various biomedical application potentials were assessed.