Immobilization of boronic acid derivative onto the magnetic Gd-containing composites

Abstract

Aiming to develop new magnetic materials for neutron shielding applications, B- and Gd-containing magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized. Following bottom-up synthetic approach, core-shell Fe 3 O 4/Gd 2 O 3 nanocomposite particles were synthesized at the first stage. In the next stage, magnetic core-shell particles were modified with amino groups followed by grafting onto their surface of the boronic acid derivative. Such a multifunctional material, containing both boron (B) and gadolinium (Gd) atoms is a promising candidate for developing films and membranes, strongly interacting with neutrons. Due to the presence of boronic acids and bound to the indicator (Alizarin Red S), the material can induce color changes while immersed in sugar-containing solutions. Such a feature enables a possibility to estimate the number of boron atoms left after interaction with neutrons, thus allowing to check composite neutron-capture recourse.