A BIO-INSPIRED POLYDOPAMINE APPROACH TO PREPARATION OF GOLD-COATED Fe3O4 CORE–SHELL NANOPARTICLES: SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND MECHANISM

Abstract

A biomimetic and facile approach for integrating Fe 3 O 4 and Au with polydopamine (PDA) was proposed to construct gold-coated Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles ( Fe 3 O 4@ Au – PDA ) with a core–shell structure by coupling in situ reduction with a seed-mediated method in aqueous solution at room temperature. The morphology, structure and composition of the core–shell structured Fe 3 O 4@ Au – PDA nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). The formation process of Au shell was assessed using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. More importantly, according to investigating changes in PDA molecules by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and in preparation process of the zeta-potential data of nanoparticles, the mechanism of core–shell structure formation was proposed. Firstly, PDA-coated Fe 3 O 4 are obtained using dopamine (DA) self-polymerization to form thin and surface-adherent PDA films onto the surface of a Fe 3 O 4 "core". Then, Au seeds are attached on the surface of PDA-coated Fe 3 O 4 via electrostatic interaction in order to serve as nucleation centers catalyzing the reduction of Au 3+ to Au 0 by the catechol groups in PDA. Accompanied by the deposition of Au , PDA films transfer from the surface of Fe 3 O 4 to that of Au as stabilizing agent. In order to confirm the reasonableness of this mechanism, two verification experiments were conducted. The presence of PDA on the surface of Fe 3 O 4@ Au – PDA nanoparticles was confirmed by the finding that glycine or ethylenediamine could be grafted onto Fe 3 O 4@ Au – PDA nanoparticles through Schiff base reaction. In addition, Fe 3 O 4@ Au – DA nanoparticles, in which DA was substituted for PDA, were prepared using the same method as that for Fe 3 O 4@ Au – PDA nanoparticles and characterized by UV-Vis, TEM and FTIR. The results validated that DA possesses multiple functions of attaching Au seeds as well as acting as both reductant and stabilizing agent, the same functions as those of PDA.