Water-dispersible Fe3O4 nanoparticles stabilized with a biodegradable amphiphilic copolymer

In this work, we report a green synthetic method using water-dispersible magnetite nanoparticles containing oleic acid and poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-poly(ɛ-caprolactone) diblock copolymer as the magnetite nanoparticle dispersants. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation and had a bilayer surface with a hydrophobic inner poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) layer and hydrophilic corona poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (POX) blocks. Also, the role of the ultrasonicating treatment's duration on the percent of magnetite in the complex and on its magnetic properties was investigated. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed the average particle size to be about 10–20 nm in diameter for nanoparticles.