Hydrophobic superparamagnetic FePt nanoparticles in hydrophilic poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels: a new multifunctional hybrid system

K. Wiemer; K. Dörmbach; I. Slabu; G. Agrawal; F. Schrader; T. Caumanns; S. D. M. Bourone; J. Mayer; J. Steitz; U. Simon; A. Pich

doi:10.1039/C6TB02342H

Hydrophobic superparamagnetic FePt nanoparticles in hydrophilic poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels: a new multifunctional hybrid system†

K. Wiemer,‡^a K. Dörmbach,‡^b I. Slabu,^c G. Agrawal,^b F. Schrader,^a T. Caumanns,^d S. D. M. Bourone,^a J. Mayer,^d J. Steitz,^e U. Simon^a and A. Pich

*^b

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and JARA-FIT, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

^b DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials e.V. and Institute for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
E-mail: pich@dwi.rwth-aachen.de

^c Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany

^d Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

^e Institute for Laboratory Animal Science, University Hospital RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Abstract

We report the synthesis of a new multifunctional colloidal hybrid system consisting of thermoresponsive amphiphilic biocompatible poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels loaded with hydrophobic superparamagnetic FePt nanoparticles (NPs). In the first step, water swellable poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels were mixed with hydrophobically coated sub-10 nm superparamagnetic FePt NPs in a tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution. In the second step, changing the surrounding solvent from THF to water forces the FePt NPs to migrate into the amphiphilic microgels. These new hybrid microgels (i) are colloidally stable in water and their thermo-responsive properties in terms of volume phase transition are retained, (ii) exhibit superparamagnetic characteristics introduced by FePt NPs, (iii) show a drastically reduced cytotoxicity compared to water-soluble FePt NPs of similar size, as known from the literature. This makes the new hybrid microgels suitable e.g. as biocompatible containers for drug delivery or for imaging.

Journal of Materials Chemistry B

Hydrophobic superparamagnetic FePt nanoparticles in hydrophilic poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels: a new multifunctional hybrid system†

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions

Hydrophobic superparamagnetic FePt nanoparticles in hydrophilic poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels: a new multifunctional hybrid system

Social activity

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements