Stability and Cytotoxicity of Well-Dispersed Magnetite Nanoparticles Prepared by Hydrothermal Method

Abstract

A preparation of well-dispersed magnetite nanoparticles was demonstrated in this study. Magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized by a hydrothermal method using aloe vera extract and serial centrifugation was employed to separate the sizes of well-dispersed particles. Well-dispersed MNPs with average sizes of 241, 227, 195, 165, 141 and 93 nm were obtained. They were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). XRD results indicated the MNPs were Fe3O4. Magnetic hysteresis loop measurements of the samples showed superparamagnetic properties. Pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) showed stable proton (1H) spin-spin relaxation time (T2) values of water with suspended magnetite nanoparticles over a time course of 20 min, suggesting they were well-dispersed. The synthesized magnetite nanoparticles showed low cytotoxicity to NIH 3T3 cells at concentrations of 1-10%.