Nanosized temperature-responsive Fe3O4-UA-g-P(UA-co-NIPAAm) magnetomicelles for controlled drug release

This paper demonstrated the preparation of temperature-responsive magnetomicelles that consist of a functionalized hexagonal magnetic core, Fe3O4-undecylenic acid (Fe3O4-UA), and an amphiphilic surface layer of temperature-responsive polymer. The functionalized magnetic Fe3O4-UA core was prepared by a suspension-oxidation reaction in an aqueous solution, during which the formation of the Fe3O4 and coordination of UA to the Fe3O4 occurred simultaneously. Amphiphilic poly(undecylenic acid-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) (P(UA-co-NIPAAm)) was grafted to the Fe3O4-UA core as a temperature-responsive micellar surface layer to prepare well dispersed Fe3O4-UA-g-P(UA-co-NIPAAm) magnetomicelles with the size of around 8 nm in water. The application of resulted nanosized Fe3O4-UA-g-P(UA-co-NIPAAm) magnetomicelles in controlled drug delivery was further investigated and it was found that resulting magnetomicelles exhibited good potential for temperature triggered controlled drug release.