Stabilization and Characterization of Iron Oxide Superparamagnetic Core-Shell Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are used in a rapidly expanding number of research and practical applications in the biomedical field. These applications require good NP stability at physiological conditions, close control over NP size, and controlled surface presentation of functionalities. Such performance can only be reached by densely grafted, polymer, sterically stabilized core-shell nanoparticles, where the polymer shell interaction with the environment determines the colloidal properties of the nanoparticle. A critical evaluation of different strategies to stabilize and functionalize superparamagnetic core-shell iron oxide nanoparticles in terms of physicochemical properties is necessary to ascertain that the desired performance can be reached in the final application.