Abstract
The interconnection of nanotechnology and medicine could lead to improved materials, offering a better quality of life and new opportunities for biomedical applications, moving from research to clinical applications. Magnetite nanoparticles are interesting magnetic nanomaterials because of the property-depending methods chosen for their synthesis. Magnetite nanoparticles can be coated with various materials, resulting in “core/shell” magnetic structures with tunable properties. To synthesize promising materials with promising implications for biomedical applications, the researchers functionalized magnetite nanoparticles with silica and, thanks to the presence of silanol groups, the functionality, biocompatibility, and hydrophilicity were improved. This review highlights the most important synthesis methods for silica-coated with magnetite nanoparticles. From the presented methods, the most used was the Stöber method; there are also other syntheses presented in the review, such as co-precipitation, sol-gel, thermal decomposition, and the hydrothermal method. The second part of the review presents the main applications of magnetite-silica core/shell nanostructures. Magnetite-silica core/shell nanostructures have promising biomedical applications in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a contrast agent, hyperthermia, drug delivery systems, and selective cancer therapy but also in developing magnetic micro devices.
Highlights
IntroductionBecause monodisperse silica nanoparticles with controlled sizes are produced, the process is considered a convenient approach in preparing silica nanoparticles for applications including intracellular drug delivery and biosensing [66,67]
This study has proven that combining classical silica and amino-functionalized silica precursors at a volume ratio of 3/1 with PVA-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) (PVA-SPIONs) allowed for an easier and better synthesis of core/shell silica/SPIONs with PVA covalently grafted onto their surface
It can be stated that magnetite-silica core/shell nanostructures have beneficial applications in many therapies and, through surface functionalization, they can load various drugs and further assist their delivery to obtain personalized therapy for the treatment and diagnosis of specific diseases, combining the benefits provided by the two components, the magnetic core and the silica shell
Summary
Because monodisperse silica nanoparticles with controlled sizes are produced, the process is considered a convenient approach in preparing silica nanoparticles for applications including intracellular drug delivery and biosensing [66,67] This advantage of synthesizing silica nanoparticles through the Stöber method suggests that silica coated over magnetite nanoparticles can significantly improve their stability for long-term storage conditions, retaining their medical properties by improving their shelf life. This is one of the crucial parameters for developing MRI-based contrast agents for clinical and commercial applications [68].
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