One-pot synthesis of highly magnetic and stable citrate coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles by modified coprecipitation method

Abstract Highly stable superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) prepared through a modified one-pot coprecipitation technique using citrate as a surfactant and capping agent. The result of the as-synthesized citrate–SPION via a one-pot technique is compared with peptized SPION synthesized via the coprecipitation method. Formation of citrate–SPION is characterized using transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared, zeta potential, and vibrating sample magnetometer. XRD result reveals that the citrate does not affect the crystalline structure and purity of the SPION. Zeta potential of the citrate–SPION and the peptized SPION is −44 mV and 38.4 mV, respectively. Similarly, the saturation magnetization values of citrate–SPION and peptized SPION are 53.9 emu g −1 and 43.8 emu g −1 , respectively. The results show that the citrate–SPION prepared by modified a one pot technique has a higher saturation magnetization and is more stable than the peptized SPION.