Controllable synthesis and characterization of Fe3O4/Au composite nanoparticles

• A low cost, simple manipulation and nontoxic approach was designed for preparation of magnetic Fe3O4/Au (GoldMag NPs) nanocomposites.
• The size of GoldMag NPs could be controlled from 25 to 300 nm by varying the concentration of reactants.
• GoldMag NPs possessed good magnetic response, high dispersion, and good stability.

Fe3O4/Au composite nanoparticles (GoldMag NPs) have received considerable attention because of their advantageous properties arisen from both individual Au and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Many efforts have been devoted to the synthesis of these composite nanoparticles. Herein, GoldMag NPs were reported to be synthesized by two-step method. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation and modified by the citric acid, and then citric acid-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles were used as seeds in sodium citrate solution to reduce the HAuCl4. The size of obtained nanoparticles was geared from 25 to 300 nm by controlling the concentration of reactants. The GoldMag NPs were characterized by UV–vis spectrometer, dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The GoldMag NPs showed good superparamagnetism at room temperature and were well dispersed in water with surface plasmon resonance absorption peak varied from 538 nm to 570 nm.

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