The integration of noble metal and magnetic nanoparticles with controlled structures that can couple various specific effects to the different nanocomposite in multifunctional nanosystems have been found interesting in the field of medicine. In this work, we show synthesis route to prepare small Au nanoparticles of sizes  = 3.9 ± 0.2 nm attached to Fe3O4 nanoparticle cores ( = 49.2 ± 3.5 nm) in aqueous medium for potential application as a nano-heater. Remarkably, the resulted Au decorated PEI-Fe3O4 (Au@PEI-Fe3O4) nanoparticles are able to retain bulk magnetic moment MS = 82–84 Am2/kgFe3O4, with the Verwey transition observed at TV = 98 K. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity analysis of the nanosystem microglial BV2 cells showed high viability (>97.5%) to concentrate up to 100 µg/mL in comparison to the control samples. In vitro heating experiments on microglial BV2 cells under an ac magnetic field (H0 = 23.87 kA/m; f = 571 kHz) yielded specific power absorption (SPA) values of SPA = 43 ± 3 and 49 ± 1 μW/cell for PEI-Fe3O4 and Au@PEI-Fe3O4 NPs, respectively. These similar intracellular SPA values imply that functionalization of the magnetic particles with Au did not change the heating efficiency, providing at the same time a more flexible platform for multifunctional functionalization.

We present a systematic study of core-shell Au/Fe3O4 nanoparticles produced by thermal decomposition under mild conditions. The morphology and crystal structure of the nanoparticles revealed the presence of Au core of d = (6.9 ± 1.0) nm surrounded by Fe3O4 shell with a thickness of ~3.5 nm, epitaxially grown onto the Au core surface. The Au/Fe3O4 core-shell structure was demonstrated by high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis. The magnetite shell grown on top of the Au nanoparticle displayed a thermal blocking state at temperatures below TB = 59 K and a relaxed state well above TB. Remarkably, an exchange bias effect was observed when cooling down the samples below room temperature under an external magnetic field. Moreover, the exchange bias field (HEX) started to appear at T~40 K and its value increased by decreasing the temperature. This effect has been assigned to the interaction of spins located in the magnetically disordered regions (in the inner and outer surface of the Fe3O4 shell) and spins located in the ordered region of the Fe3O4 shell.

Structural and magnetic studies of monophasic maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) magnetic nanocrystallites (MNCs) synthesized by the co-precipitation chemical route are reported in this paper. For the synthesis, a starting precursor of magnetite (Fe3O4) in basic medium was oxidized at room temperature by adjusting the pH = 3.5 at 80˚C in an acidic medium without surfactants. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shows widened peaks indicating nanometric size and Rietveld Refinement confirms only one single-phase assigned to γ-Fe2O3 MNCs. High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM) demonstrates the formation of nanoparticles with diameter around D ≈ 6.8 ± 0.1 nm which is in good agreement with Rietveld Refinement (6.4 ± 1 nm). A selected area electron diffraction pattern was carried out to complement the study of the crystalline structure of the γ-Fe2O3 MNCs. M(H) measurements taken at different temperatures show almost zero coercivity and remanence indicating superparamagnetic domain and high magnetic saturation.

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Magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) are especially interesting for several biomedical applications due to their chemical surface, especially for targeted cancer imaging and therapeutics.