Magnetic Nano-Сomposites and their Industrial Applications

Abstract

Magnetic nanocomposites are multi-component, nanosized magnetic materials, to generate the response to an external stimulus (i.e., outer inert or alternative magnetic field). The novel nanocomposites is a combination of excess of various materials such as liquid crystals, silica, gels, renewable polymers, carbon along with different magnetic particles. They have immense applications in the field of medical diagnosis and therapy, catalysis and separation. These nanocarriers are mainly classified into nanotubes, nanosheets, spherical nanoparticles, nanofibres, highly porous nanocomposites. The porous nanostructures provides a better surface for the entrapment or covalent binding of enzymes, proteins, biomolecules and drugs but the major challenge is to design and synthesize a desired structure with suitable surface properties and biocompatibility. Extensive attempts have been made to manipulate the mesoporous materials and its combination with other structure in order to synthesize a matrix with appropriate pore size, large surface area to volume ratio. “Bottom-up” and “Bottom-down” chemical-based synthesis methods have been widely employed to prepare magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetic nanocomposites are synthesized from magnetic nanoparticles and biopolymers by using sol-gel technique, chemical precipitation methods and NanogenTM, a microwave plasma method. In this chapter, we described the advances and developments in the formation/synthesis of magnetic nanocomposites. This chapter will review the characteristics, properties and applications of the magnetic nanocomposites.